One doctor for 200 thousand people in Erciş

Erciş State Hospital, which was severely damaged after the 2011 earthquake, and the prefabricated structure formed next to it, serves the district and neighboring centers. But 200 thousand people have just one doctor.

There is only one doctor in the Emergency Department of the state hospital in the Erciş district of Van, a district with a population of 200 thousand. Not much attention is paid to hygiene in the hospital where patients from neighboring provinces are transferred to. The new hospital's foundations were laid 10 years ago in Erciş and the building could not be completed yet, but the security building was completed in a year.

The Erciş State Hospital has seen severe damage following two major earthquakes which struck the district in 2011. The hospital, which is at great risk and faces the danger of collapsing at any moment, has not been emptied. Instead, cracks and spills caused by the earthquake have been covered with plaster and paints. Not satisfied with this, state officials formed a prefabricated structure in the hospital's garden and began treating people here. Erciş State Hospital and the emergency room of the structure that was built next to it is almost like a garbage dumb, whilst one doctor sees thousands of people.

Hundreds of patients are forced to return home without treatment because of the intensity. It's almost impossible to queue up at the hospital. The district of a 200 thousand population has just one doctor in the emergency room of the state hospital. Especially in the morning and evening hours, the intensity is at its peak. Hundreds of patients wait until the morning hours to get a place at the queue. Moreover, not only Erciş locals, patients from the districts of Muradiye, Çaldıran and Adilcevaz of Bitlis and Patnos of Ağrı also flock to this hospital. In addition to the congestion in the hospital, corridors and rooms are full of rubbish, and bedrooms are covered with blood stains and dirt.

FOUNDATIONS LAID 10 YEARS AGO

The foundations of the new Erciş State Hospital were laid in 2008. Although it has been 10 years, it has not been opened yet. It is not clear when the hospital where billions of liras are spent will be opened. The company that received its contract continues to say that the reason behind the incompletion of the construction is the PKK.

SECURITY BUILDING COMPLETED IN ONE YEAR

Families of patients who spoke to ANF said: “The AKP has not been able to build a hospital for 10 years, but the security building in the district was completed in one year, and the two prisons in Van in a short time, but they have not completed a hospital for 10 years. They have no concern to serve us.”