Coordination committee chaired by YÖK established for university hospitals

The decision, published in the Official Gazette with the signature of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, established a University Hospitals Coordination Committee for hospitals, health practice and research centers, and oral and dental health practice and research centers belonging to state and foundation higher education institutions. The decision set out the committee's composition, duties and working principles.

The decision listed the committee's purpose as improving the quality of service in university hospitals, ensuring coordination with the relevant institutions, strengthening education, research and development activities and administrative functioning, and ensuring financial sustainability.

The committee will monitor the financial situation of university hospitals and the income and expenditure of their revolving funds. Its duties include preparing "mandatory financial improvement programs for centers whose financial sustainability is seen to be deteriorating," notifying these to the rector for action and auditing their implementation. It will make recommendations to the relevant institutions to resolve problems concerning the effectiveness, efficiency, quality and service standards of health and education services; it will also evaluate investment planning requests concerning personnel and staffing standards and physical spaces and buildings. It will send its findings and analyses to the Executive Board of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK).

The committee will also have a say in chief physician appointments: it will propose to the rector one of three candidates to be selected by the rector from among full-time faculty members in medical or dental faculties as practice and research center director (chief physician), and it will evaluate the performance of incumbent chief physicians and submit its opinion to the rector at the end of each year on whether their terms of duty should continue.

The President of YÖK will chair the committee. It will include one representative from the Personnel and Principles General Directorate of the Presidency General Secretariat, one from the Ministry of Treasury and Finance at least at general director level, two from the Ministry of Health at least at general director level, and one each from the Presidency of Strategy and Budget and the Social Security Institution at least at general director level. A representative to be selected by YÖK from among rectors serving at state higher education institutions and a representative to be selected from among the chief physicians of university hospitals will also sit on the committee.

The committee will meet on a designated day in the first week of January, April, July and October with the attendance of at least two-thirds of its full membership, and will take decisions by an absolute majority of its full membership. Six-month monitoring reports will be sent to the relevant institutions in December and June, while annual progress reports will be sent to the Presidency General Secretariat by the end of April of the following year. The committee will also make recommendations to encourage the development of artificial intelligence and digital transformation processes and applications in the health field.