ANKARA (AA) - 443 foreign medical specialists have applied to private Turkish hospitals since the adoption last year of legislation permitting foreign health workers to be employed in Turkey.
425 of the applicants to private hospitals were found to be suitable for employment, with 188 of them already having started working. 24 of the applicants were Greek citizens.
Turkish Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu on Sunday invited Greek doctors to Turkey, saying “Today's news reflected that seven thousand doctors are seeking employment abroad. We need them and they are very welcome to come and work in Turkey."
Since civil servants are required to be Turkish citizens, foreign doctors can only work at private hospitals, Health Ministry Health Services General Director Irfan Sencan told an AA correspondent.
According to Sencan, foreign doctors seeking employment in Turkey must obtain the required documentation from the Council of Higher Education (YOK) and pass the TOMER Turkish language exam with at least a B grade within a year.
The economical crisis since 2010 has scattered thousands of Greeks to the four corners of the earth, though this is by no means a new phenomenon for a country where wages have been invariably low and the job market sluggish, especially for scientists and other specialized workers including the health personnel in Greece.
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