Türkiye has become an international role model in emergency medical services, with its disaster response capabilities, prehospital care and hospital emergency departments gaining recognition worldwide.
Bülent Erbil, chief physician of Hacettepe University Adult Hospital and president of the Turkish Association of Emergency Medicine, told Anadolu Agency (AA) during the 5th Thrace Emergency Medicine Days in Edirne that Türkiye had made significant progress in the field.
He said the Health Ministry provides high-standard services through pre-hospital care, the 112 Emergency Health Services and the National Medical Rescue Team (UMKE).
"Other countries incorporate the results of our work into their own guidelines. We make significant contributions to international scientific research in emergency medicine,” Erbil said, adding that Türkiye has a voice in emergency medicine platforms across Europe, the U.S. and the wider world.
Erbil said Türkiye's experience in disaster management, particularly following the earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş, southern Türkiye, has attracted international attention.
He highlighted the Turkish Association of Emergency Medicine's disaster school, which shares expertise and practical lessons with other countries. The World Health Organization is closely following the project, and Türkiye has been asked to host disaster-related programs and participate in planned training activities in Europe, he said.
Türkiye recorded approximately 450 million outpatient visits in 2025, around 150 million of which took place in emergency departments, Erbil said.
Although the number of emergency medicine specialists is increasing, further recruitment remains necessary, he added. Specialists are concentrated mainly in tertiary hospitals but are becoming more common in secondary-care facilities.
Erbil stressed that overcrowding must not be considered normal, calling for better patient-flow management, adequate staffing and sufficient hospital capacity to reduce the heavy workload on health care workers.
Emergency departments use advanced medical equipment, including portable ultrasound devices that allow specialists to assess patients quickly at their bedsides, Erbil said.
Artificial intelligence (AI) could also help medical professionals process complex patient records more efficiently. However, its use in emergency departments remains limited, with academic research and trials underway, he added.
Erbil said emergency departments use a red, yellow and green triage system to prioritize patients according to the severity of their conditions.
The red zone is reserved for critically ill patients requiring immediate intervention, while the yellow zone serves patients whose conditions may deteriorate. The green zone accommodates less urgent cases.
He emphasized that emergency medicine specialists prioritize the severity of a patient's condition rather than the order in which people arrive.
"The fundamental task of emergency medicine specialists is to intervene as quickly as possible in cases involving a threat to life and save those patients,” Erbil said.