Medical hotline for tourists

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The Health Ministry has launched a hotline that will break the language barrier for tourists seeking medical treatment, using a teleconference system that will allow patients to speak to doctors through translators over the phone.

Tourists can now call 112 in emergencies, and 184 for information and complaints. The calls will be dispatched directly to a doctor, with a translator teleconferenced in for assistance. If the tourist is already at a hospital, a translator can be reached by dialing 444 47 28.

Translators speaking English, German, Arabic and Russian are on stand-by 24/7 to help foreigners communicate with doctors.

“This practice is a first in the world. The global practice is to bring in a translator,” the Health Ministry’s tourism coordinator Dursun Aydın told Anatolia news agency. k HDN