This study explores the impact of the arrival of Syrian refugees in Turkey on access to health-care resources and subsequent changes in infectious disease rates among native children. Employing a distance-based instrument, it finds that native children living in regions that received large inflows of Syrian refugees experienced an increase in their risk of catching an infectious disease compared to children in less affected regions. In contrast, there is no evidence of significant changes in the incidences of noninfectious diseases such as diabetes, cancer, or anemia. The findings also reveal that the number of health-care professionals and hospital beds per capita declined in provinces that received large refugee inflows. This study also documents a decrease in native children’s probability of being fully vaccinated in provinces that received large refugee inflows. Although contact with potentially infected refugees may increase disease spread among natives, the migration-induced supply constraints in health-care access may also worsen health outcomes in host countries.

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Where does Turkey’s performance in the health dimension of the Preston Curve stand with regard to comparable countries on the development ladder? When one observes the chronological progression of health and wealth values embedded in the Preston Curve for developing countries, one sees a near monotonic increase across the board, with only a very small number of downwardly mobile countries. In the face of this near-universal increase in health and wealth values, it is necessary to adopt a more comparative perspective in order to situate the Turkish state’s choices and performance within the general story playing out for developing countries in the second half of the 20th century. Utilizing just such a comparative framework, this article uses China’s experience between 1960 and 2010 as an alternative through which to understand Turkey’s development experience.

This study investigates the case of repeated MRIs using data from Hacettepe University Hospitals. Results indicate that almost 34% of MRI consultations have to be repeated within the same year due to suboptimal quality that hinders correct assessment and diagnosis. Suboptimal quality refers to; movement artefacts, use of wrong scan technique or sequence, inexperienced reader and/or shortened time intervals. In fact, almost 30% of those repetitions result in a change in diagnosis. Results suggest that the probability of repetition is higher among women and children.