As Turkey’s government discloses health care and drug budget plans for 2017, it is becoming clear that controlling the rise in national costs while meeting needs will remain central to policies, prompting the consideration of a variety of approaches.

The devaluation of the Turkish Lira since May is making imports of medical devices more expensive and putting hospital procurement under renewed pressure. The local medtech industry associations TUMDEF and ARTED describe the problems  ̶  and the solutions  ̶  to Medtech Insight.

Turkish medtechs’ demands for payment of their outstanding hospital debts went unheeded in 2021, but the government has finally started a payment process. It is not evenly applied, and has started in a small way, but the industry feels encouraged on more than one count.