“Turkey has become a transplant center”

Speaking at the 15th Congress of the Coordination Association of Organ Transplant Organizations of Turkey in Gaziantep, Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Kemal Memişoğlu emphasized the importance of organ transplantation and said, “Turkey has become a transplant center.”

Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Kemal Memişoğlu, who came to Gaziantep for a series of programs and visits, attended the 15th Congress of the Coordination Association of Organ Transplant Organizations of Turkey. In his speech here, Minister Memişoğlu drew attention to the importance of organ transplantation and said that Turkey has come to a very important point in terms of organ donation and organ transplantation success.

“Turkey has become a transplant center”

Sharing important data on organ transplantation activities in the program, Minister Memişoğlu said, “At the point we have reached today, Turkey has become the transplant center of the world with 76 kidney, 52 liver, 15 heart, 2 lung transplant centers, 5 thousand transplants a year, including over 1,700 liver transplants, and seven cross transplants, which cannot be done in most places in the world and can only be done in one place. This was achieved with great dedication, effort and hard work. I am grateful to all of you. I have worked one-on-one with Hasan Taşçı, Uluğ, Alper Demir, Akın Tekin, Sezai Yılmaz, Mehmet Haber and others. It is a very difficult thing, but it is something that requires not only a surgical team, but the whole team, the whole infrastructure, a very large organization and knowledge up to anesthesia.”

“Turkey has to produce science and technology in health”

Emphasizing that Turkey should be on the side that produces science and technology in health, Minister Memişoğlu said, “There is a team that knows the best health service in the world and offers it as a service to this nation. You are worthy of this. You have always shown this and you will continue to do so. Therefore, Turkey has to produce not only on the service side, but also on the science and technology side. In other words, we have to say something new. We are striving for this. Our goal is to produce health knowledge, and to gain economic and social power through health knowledge.”

After the speeches, the program ended with the presentation of gifts and photo shoot.