Doorway sensors recorded just 1,240 entries at 49 public clinics during Turkey’s three-day Eid al-Fitr break in March, while billing records listed 18,460 face-to-face visits, according to an audit published on Wednesday. The centres had been advertised as open in a public holiday-care guide.
The Aegean Access Review Office said 11 clinics registered no entrance at all during the break. It found the mismatch across sites in four provinces, including Izmir and Konya, and estimated that the disputed claims were worth ₺9.6 million (about €190,000).
The numbers behind the mismatch
The counters were fitted at clinic entrances in 2024 to help estimate heating needs and visitor flow. Auditors compared their readings with the network’s appointment and reimbursement data after noticing an unusually large spike in billed holiday consultations.
At 37 clinics, the number of claims was more than ten times the number of recorded entries. The audit says the sensors covered every public entrance at those sites and showed no sign of a system fault at 43 of the 49 clinics. Auditors later found seven of the sites they checked had no other public entrance.
The numbers do not prove every disputed visit was invented, but they are too far apart to explain away as a counting error.
Rüya G. Evliyaoğlu, audit director
Rüya G. Evliyaoğlu said the report could not establish whether any individual had deliberately entered false claims. The clinic network says staff may have used side doors, and that some appointments were entered in batches after the holiday. Auditors said neither explanation accounted for the full gap.
Payments paused as review begins
The national health ministry has ordered a 30-day pause on reimbursements to the 49 centres while it checks patient records and staff rosters, the audit office said. It has also sent a sample of claims to prosecutors to assess whether further action is warranted.
The Anatolian Public Clinics Network, which operates the centres, said it had opened its own review and would provide appointment logs. Its spokesperson, Nurul R. Prasetya, said the holiday guide was based on clinic schedules submitted before the break. “We will repay any amount shown to be incorrect, but we need the patient files checked before conclusions are drawn,” she said.
For patients, the guide was meant to settle a practical question: which clinic would be open when routine services paused for the holiday. Yvonne M. Rousseau, who went to a listed centre in Izmir and found its doors shut, said she had travelled across the district to get there. “I relied on that listing because it was the official route to care,” she said.
The audit office plans to publish a clinic-by-clinic reconciliation by 30 October. It is also recommending that future holiday listings show live opening confirmations rather than schedules submitted in advance. Until then, the ministry says patients should call clinics directly before travelling.
