Türkiye has set out 31,054 positions for contracted health personnel in 2027, most of them for specialist doctors, under a presidential decision published in the Official Gazette on Saturday.
The decision, signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and dated Oct. 16, determines the service units where health staff can be employed on contracts in regions and specialties where recruitment is difficult. It is issued every year under Law No. 4924, which allows the Health Ministry to hire contracted staff in such areas, typically in eastern and rural provinces.
Specialists dominate
By job title, 25,955 posts are for specialist physicians and 5,061 for general practitioners. The remaining positions are for 25 health officers, nine midwives, two nurses, one dietitian and one health technician.
By service unit, 31,040 positions are in inpatient hospitals, seven in district health directorates and community health centres, six in rural health houses and one in emergency health services.
The decision is not a job advertisement. It contains no application dates, requirements or vacancy lists; recruitment takes place through separate announcements by the Health Ministry.
Why it matters
The scale of the allocation reflects pressure on Türkiye’s public health system, which recorded a record 1.139 billion doctor visits in 2025, or 13.2 per person. Shortages of specialists outside the big cities have long led to longer waiting times and patients travelling to larger centres for treatment.
For foreign residents covered by Türkiye’s general health insurance (SGK), state hospital appointments are booked through the MHRS system, as explained in our guide to booking a public hospital appointment. The same day’s Official Gazette also amended the regulation governing the Türkiye Public Health and Chronic Diseases Institute.
Visitors coming for treatment should note that private clinics serving medical tourists are regulated separately, as described in our health tourism explainer. Those planning a move can find health insurance requirements in our moving to Turkey checklist.
Sources
- 31 Bin 54 Sözleşmeli Sağlık Personeli Kararı Resmi Gazete’de (Memurlar.net / AA)
- 17 Ekim 2026 Resmî Gazete kararları yayımlandı (İleri Gazetesi)
Photo: Mereyü / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
