Updated 10 October 2026 · GetClinicTurkey Editorial · Analysis of the Ministry of Health’s September 2026 lists. General information, not legal advice.
As of the Ministry of Health’s September 2026 lists, 4,705 health facilities in Turkey held an international health tourism authorisation certificate, and 1,759 of them (37%) were dental facilities. Nearly half are in Istanbul. Below we break the official lists down by facility type and province, explain what the certificate is and what it does not prove, and show how we counted, so you can check our numbers.
- 4,705 authorised facilities: 2,458 private practices, 1,569 other facilities, 543 hospitals and 135 medical centres.
- 1,759 (37.4%) are dental, including 1,288 private dental polyclinics.
- Istanbul has 2,240 (47.6%); the top four provinces hold 75.9%.
- As of 5 October 2026, 236 clinic profiles on GetClinicTurkey matched an entry on these lists.
What the Ministry list counts
Turkey’s Regulation on International Health Tourism and Tourist Health (Official Gazette, 26 April 2025, No. 32882) says health facilities and intermediary companies must hold an authorisation certificate (yetki belgesi) to work in international health tourism (Article 5(1)). The Ministry of Health issues it to facilities; USHAŞ, the state health tourism company, issues it to intermediaries. A facility applies through the Ministry’s system, the provincial health directorate reviews the documents and inspects the premises, and the Ministry then issues the certificate (Article 5(2)).
It is often called a “health tourism licence”, but it is not the same as a clinic’s operating licence. The regulation defines a health facility as one that already holds an operating licence under its own rules and has been granted the authorisation certificate on top (Article 4(1)(e)).
The Ministry publishes the authorised facilities on its Uluslararası Sağlık Turizmi Yetki Belgesi Alan Sağlık Tesisleri page as four PDF lists. Each line is one facility at one address, so a clinic chain with five branches can appear five times. Authorised intermediaries are published separately and are not counted here. The UK Foreign Office also points patients to the Ministry’s provider list on the HealthTürkiye website (FCDO travel advice).
Authorised facilities by type
Private practices are the largest group, followed by the “other health facilities” list, which is dominated by dental polyclinics. Figures are as of the Ministry’s September 2026 lists.
| Ministry list | Entries | Share | What it mostly contains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private practices (muayenehaneler) | 2,458 | 52.2% | Individual doctors’ and dentists’ practices |
| Other health facilities (diğer sağlık tesisleri) | 1,569 | 33.3% | Mostly dental polyclinics, plus IVF, physiotherapy and imaging centres |
| Hospitals (hastaneler) | 543 | 11.5% | Private, public, university and dental hospitals |
| Medical centres (tıp merkezleri) | 135 | 2.9% | Private multi-specialty medical centres |
| Total | 4,705 | 100% |
The list links open the Ministry’s current PDFs, which were updated on 8 October 2026 and may differ from the September 2026 figures in this table.
On the September 2026 lists, of the 543 hospitals, 346 are private hospitals, 109 public hospitals, 40 public university hospitals and 36 foundation university hospitals, with the rest dental hospitals. Of the 2,458 private practices, 794 are listed under the “Op. Dr.” title used by surgical specialists and 377 belong to dentists. The “other” list holds 1,288 private dental polyclinics (82% of that list), plus smaller groups such as 17 IVF centres and 10 radiology centres.
How much of the list is dental?
By our count, 1,759 of the 4,705 entries (37.4%) are dental facilities as of the September 2026 lists. We counted an entry as dental when the Ministry’s facility type is a dental polyclinic, dental centre or dental hospital, when a private practice belongs to a dentist, or when the facility name is that of a dental hospital or university dental centre.
| Dental facility type | Entries |
|---|---|
| Private dental polyclinics (Özel Ağız ve Diş Sağlığı Polikliniği) | 1,288 |
| Dentists’ private practices (Dt. title or dental practice name) | 377 |
| Private dental centres (Özel Ağız ve Diş Sağlığı Merkezi) | 48 |
| Public, university and private dental hospitals and centres | 46 |
| Dental total | 1,759 (37.4% of 4,705) |
Treat this as a minimum. General hospitals and some general polyclinics also offer dentistry but are not counted as dental here, because the list gives no department detail.
Where authorised facilities are: top 10 provinces
On the Ministry’s September 2026 lists, authorised facilities are spread across 63 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, but they are heavily concentrated. Istanbul alone holds 47.6% of all entries, and Istanbul, Antalya, Ankara and İzmir together hold 75.9%. The top 10 provinces account for 86.8%.
| # | Province | All entries | Share of all | Dental entries | Dental share in province |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Istanbul | 2,240 | 47.6% | 735 | 33% |
| 2 | Antalya | 568 | 12.1% | 342 | 60% |
| 3 | Ankara | 381 | 8.1% | 96 | 25% |
| 4 | İzmir | 380 | 8.1% | 157 | 41% |
| 5 | Muğla | 117 | 2.5% | 76 | 65% |
| 6 | Adana | 102 | 2.2% | 21 | 21% |
| 7 | Bursa | 84 | 1.8% | 24 | 29% |
| 8 | Mersin | 80 | 1.7% | 34 | 43% |
| 9 | Aydın | 77 | 1.6% | 56 | 73% |
| 10 | Samsun | 57 | 1.2% | 18 | 32% |
The coast is dental-heavy. On the September 2026 lists, dental facilities make up 60% of Antalya’s entries, 65% of Muğla’s and 73% of Aydın’s, compared with 25% in Ankara, where hospitals and specialist practices dominate. Of the 1,759 dental entries on the September 2026 lists, Istanbul has 735 (42%) and Antalya 342 (19%). Dental entries appear in 53 provinces in total. Within Istanbul, Şişli and Kadıköy have the most dental entries, based on the district named in each address.
If you are deciding between cities, our Istanbul vs Antalya comparison covers the practical differences for a dental trip.
How many GetClinicTurkey clinics are on the list?
As of 5 October 2026, 236 clinic profiles on GetClinicTurkey matched an entry on the Ministry’s September 2026 lists. We matched each profile by legal name, district, address and, where we had it, phone number, and checked every match individually. Most matched entries are dental polyclinics. Each matched profile shows the exact name the Ministry uses, the list version and the date we checked.
The full table is on our Ministry of Health licence check page, and you can download it as a CSV. A clinic without the label is not necessarily unauthorised: it may be listed under a legal name or address we could not match with confidence. Ask the clinic for its certificate.
What the numbers do not tell you
- It is not a quality ranking. Being on the list means the facility holds the certificate. It is not a Ministry recommendation of a clinic, a doctor or a treatment, and it says nothing about results (see how to check a surgeon).
- The lists change. USHAŞ assesses authorised facilities at least once a year and can suspend a certificate for three or six months, then cancel it if problems persist (Article 9(2)). A certificate is also cancelled if the facility has done no health tourism work in the past year, and a cancelled facility cannot get a new one for a year (Article 16(4)–(5)).
- A snapshot ages quickly. The Ministry published updated lists dated 8 October 2026 while this article was being prepared. A first count of their numbered rows gives 4,739 entries. The breakdown above uses the September 2026 version, which is also the version behind our profile labels.
How to check a clinic yourself
Ask the clinic for its legal name and a copy of its certificate, then search the current Ministry list for that name and compare the address; the regulation requires the name on a clinic’s website to match its certificate (Article 13(2)). Our licence check page walks through each step, and the 12 questions to ask before a deposit cover the rest of your checks.
Method
- Source: the Ministry of Health’s four PDF lists of facilities holding an international health tourism authorisation certificate (hospitals, medical centres, private practices, other health facilities). The PDFs were created on 28 and 29 September 2026 and downloaded on 5 October 2026.
- Extraction: we converted the tables to one row per numbered entry. Each list is numbered from 1 without gaps, and our row counts match the last number on each list: 543, 135, 2,458 and 1,569, a total of 4,705.
- Type: taken from the list itself and from the facility type column. Dental entries are those whose type contains “Ağız ve Diş” (oral and dental health), private practices whose holder has the “Dt.” (dentist) title or a dental practice name, and hospitals named as dental hospitals or university dental centres. A private practice counts under the “Op. Dr.” (surgical specialist) title when “Op. Dr.” appears anywhere in its name, including names that start with “Özel”.
- Province: the province column of the list. Districts are read from the address text and are missing for 87 entries, so we do not publish district counts.
- Our directory match: made on 5 October 2026 and checked by hand, as described on the licence check page.
To cite these figures, name the Ministry of Health’s September 2026 lists and this page, and keep the date with any number. For figures about our own clinic profiles, such as ratings and review counts, see our clinic review and price index.
Frequently asked questions
How many health facilities in Turkey hold a health tourism authorisation certificate?
As of the Ministry of Health’s September 2026 lists, 4,705 facilities: 543 hospitals, 135 medical centres, 2,458 private practices and 1,569 other health facilities. The Ministry updates the lists, so check the current version before relying on any figure.
How many dental clinics in Turkey are authorised for health tourism?
By our count, 1,759 of the 4,705 entries on the September 2026 lists (37%) are dental facilities, including 1,288 private dental polyclinics and 377 dentists’ private practices. Treat it as a minimum: hospitals and general polyclinics that also offer dentistry are not counted.
Which Turkish city has the most health tourism authorised facilities?
Istanbul, with 2,240 of the 4,705 entries (47.6%) on the September 2026 lists, followed by Antalya (568), Ankara (381) and İzmir (380). For dental facilities alone the order is Istanbul, Antalya, İzmir, then Ankara.
Is the health tourism authorisation the same as a clinic’s operating licence?
No. Every health facility in Turkey needs its own operating licence. The authorisation certificate is an additional permission, issued by the Ministry of Health, to treat international health tourists. A clinic can be licensed to operate without holding it.
If a clinic is not on the Ministry list, is it unlicensed?
Not necessarily. The Ministry lists facilities under their legal names, which often differ from the brand a clinic advertises, and the lists change between versions. Search by legal name, doctor’s surname and address, and ask the clinic for a copy of its certificate before you pay a deposit.
Sources
- Ministry of Health: Uluslararası Sağlık Turizmi Yetki Belgesi Alan Sağlık Tesisleri
- Current lists (PDF): hospitals, medical centres, private practices, other health facilities
- Resmî Gazete, 26 April 2025, No. 32882: Uluslararası Sağlık Turizmi ve Turistin Sağlığı Hakkında Yönetmelik
- GOV.UK: Turkey travel advice, health
- HealthTürkiye
Comparing clinics? Every profile shows whether we found the clinic on the Ministry list. Browse clinics or read how we verify clinics.
- Turkey Dental Tourism Statistics 2026
- Dental Cost Index — published Turkey and UK clinic prices
- Turkey Dental Tourism FAQ
- How We Verify Clinics