Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Öztürk Oran said in his opening speech, “The main agenda of the medical sector has been public receivables until now, and it was stated on every platform that we participated in by the sector and TOBB that public receivables should be paid for the sustainability of the sector throughout the process. We will continue to express it, but commercial life continues. The ‘Public Procurement System’ is changing. The rules of the game are changing. We have to take our place in this game. On this platform, we are looking for solutions to industry problems by making the public a stakeholder. Our solution partners for today's agenda are DMO and Public Hospitals. We will discuss what we will do for the sustainability of medical device production and supply.”

“The medical sector is an industry that performs miracles when given the opportunity, has high added value and has the potential to improve the country's economy. It is important for the sector to make the method of buying goods in the public sector sustainable, to ensure the balance of payments, to make the payments predictable.”

Industry representatives emphasized that the medical sector should also benefit from the price difference decree in order to compensate for delays in payments and losses caused by currency differences.

DMO General Manager Mücahit Özdemir stated that a total of approximately 12 billion liras have been made in purchases through the Health Market Application in the last two years since its establishment, a large market volume was reached in a short time with the university hospitals making their purchases through the system, and the targets for the five years later were reached in as little as a year due to the pandemic and due to the intensification of health services delivery. He stated that the increased volume of work being attempted to be managed via software, automations and robotic processes, and that it is aimed to realize business and transactions quickly and effectively by taking advantage of all the benefits of technology. He emphasized that a standard has been set for payment periods that have become the biggest problem of the sector with the Health Market Application and that they are trying to bring this to better levels.

Dr. Hasan Aslan, Deputy General Manager of Public Hospitals, said that Health Market Application is a structure that ensures that the purchases of goods are centralized and carried out within the framework of certain rules, reduces uncertainties in the market, and aims to ensure sustainability in health purchases with payment balance by ensuring predictability and transparency. “In order to maintain health care, we need medical supplies, medical sector, we care about the continuity of the sector for the sustainability of the service, we are with the sector.”

After the meeting, a gift was presented on behalf of the Council members by Fatin Dağçınar, representative of the Ostim Medical Industry Clustering Association, for his support to the medical sector.