public hospital utilization among syrian refugees in turkey

Refugee’s health has become an increasingly important policy concern in turkey. the aim of this record - based study was to present the size and economic dimension of services provided to refugees in public hospitals throughout the country and explain the legal status related to health insurance. the legal regulations and data on utilization of hospitals were obtained from the ministry of health. the results showed that all refugees used preventive and emergency services free of charge and also registered refugees had the right to use public primary and secondary health services for free. according to utilization data, number of births was 103347, deaths 3460, operations 260212, emergency and outpatients 8.849518, and inpatients 252470 in 2014 to 2015. total health spending for the public hospitalswasapproximately $ 338392896 in thesameyears. it can be suggested that the roleandcapacity of preventive health services and primary health services provided by family physicians should be increased in order to reduce the work load in public hospitals caused by the syrian patients.