Healthcare contributed significantly to the socio-economic development of Turkey. Several reforms have been introduced in the 2000s within the Health Transformation Programme and substantial improvement was obtained in basic health indicators such as life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rates and maternal mortality rates. During the same period, the improvement in access to healthcare (i.e. consulting a physician per capita has increased from 3.1 to 8.9), the extension of coverage in preventive healthcare services (i.e. vaccination rates have increased from 77% to 97%7) and the introduction of innovative pharmaceuticals have huge contribution to this success (according to a study, innovative pharmaceuticals have increased the life expectancy on average by 3 years between 1999-2008 and have decreased the number of hospitalization days). The success in the healthcare field has been well received in the public sphere and the satisfaction level from healthcare services has significantly increased from 40% to 70%.
