The Impact of Syrian Immigrant Patients on Health Service Delivery: The Case of Istanbul

Aim: The study investigates service delivery impacts to Syrian patients on the Turkish healthcare system.Method: The study was carried out in a retrospective and used the cross-sectional descriptivedesign using the data of Syrian patients served in public and private health institutionsthroughout Istanbul in 2018.Results: Healthcare services were provided to 1,419,069 Syrian patients in health institutionsin Istanbul in 2018. This number constitutes 1.43% of general patient admissions. While theratio of Syrian patients to outpatient clinic admissions was 1.05%, the rate for emergencyservices admissions was 2.82%. In addition, the rate of Syrian patients in general admissionswas 1.43%, while the rate among inpatients was 6.10%.Conclusion: Turkey, despite having a health workforce and technical possibilities (numbersof hospital beds, MR and CT devices) to have less opportunities from OECD countries, whichalso share these resources with Syrian patients. Turkey offers health services to a substantialamount of Syrian patients. Immigrant Syrian patients constitute 1.43% of general admissions tohospitals. It is thought that this small health service burden will not adversely affect the deliveryof health services.