The only institution to be donated among 17 other accepted Turkish institutions projects, the Istanbul Training and Research Hospital hosted officials from 13 different countries, designated by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) and Turkish National Agency.

After the ‘Projects of Encouragement for Health and its Development in Turkey’ presentation, an official from the Public Health Directorate of Istanbul Mustafa Tasdemir stated that the establishment of the Turkish Public Institution and General Directorate of Health Promotion one and a half year ago “was a revolution of change in Turkish health care history.”

Medical Director of Istanbul Training and Research Hospital Mehmet Salih Gurel noted that for a healthy society, an effective, accessible and quality health care system was a must, expressing that their general health promotion was over controlling tobacco, alcohol, nutrition, physical activity and psychosocial issues.

“In specific health promotion, we are improving on prevention of complications in diabetes patients, education of asthma patients and rehabilitation,” Gurel added.

Stressing they categorized their health promotion in the categories of patient, staff, hospital and community, Gurel stated their main aim in making the promotion was to increase physical activities, diet counseling, obesity outpatient clinics, breast cancer outpatient clinics and home care services.

“To promote these, patient schools or public health conferences are held on organ donation information, preventive measures, hand hygiene and breastfeeding policies,” Gurel added.

Saying it was the second time Istanbul Training and Research Hospital was hosting a project, Medical Director Ozgur Yigit stated that most of their program's attendees were educators.

One of the attendees, German school-inspector Sabine Reinert-Richter stated she was “impressed very well by the project for everybody works together in the hospital.”

Saying she worked for the development of schools in Germany, Richter stated their aim was to improve the introduction of health management in their institutions.

The community, consisting of several health officials from Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Spain, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Netherlands, France, the UK and Esthonia will visit several institutions and listen to presentations on different subjects until November 15 before writing a final report on the visit.  

CEDEFOP, based in Greece since 1995, supports the development of European vocational education and training (VET) policies and contributes to their implementation.

It works to strengthen European cooperation and works closely with the European Commission, member states’ governments, representatives of employers and trade unions, VET researchers and practitioners. It provides them with up-to-date information on developments in VET as well as opportunities for policy debate.