Health workers go on trial in Turkey accused of private care scheme linked to 10 infant deaths

Associated Press

ISTANBUL (AP) — Doctors, nurses and an ambulance driver are among health care workers on trial accused of causing at least 10 infant deaths linked to a scheme to defraud Turkey’s social security system. Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the court in Istanbul where 47 defendants are accused of transferring babies to neonatal units of private hospitals where they were kept for prolonged and sometimes unnecessary treatments and died due to neglect and malpractice. The health workers are also accused of falsifying reports to make the babies’ condition appear more serious with the aim of obtaining payments from the social security institution. The main defendants have denied any wrongdoing.