Turkey expands emergency health services with GÖKBEY helicopter

Turkey provides 24/7 emergency health services across land, sea, and air. The national health fleet currently includes over 6,000 land ambulances, 7 sea ambulances, 15 helicopters, and 2 aircraft ambulances.

Eray Çınar, General Director of Emergency Health Services, stated that approximately 500 of the land ambulances are specially equipped for specific medical cases. Sea ambulance services are active in four provinces: Istanbul, Çanakkale, Balıkesir, and Muğla. Air ambulances are utilized to transport patients requiring advanced medical treatment that cannot be provided in their local regions.

The fleet is expected to expand with the addition of the domestic GÖKBEY helicopter, which is slated to join the inventory by the end of the year. Çınar emphasized that the service focuses on strategic station placement to account for population density, traffic, and disaster risks to ensure rapid response times.