Fethiye Develet Hospital offers 24/7 services for foreigners. But how does the service work and what will it cost? We explain in our two part article.

No doubt inspired by the clear success of the Esnaf and Letoon private hospitals, the State Hospital in the Arkaca / Çalış area of Fethiye now offers a 24/7 health services for foreigners, with English speaking 'medical translators' on the staff to facilitate access for non-Turkish speakers.

We visited the Hospital to meet the translators and get an idea of costs and how, if you decide to use the State service rather than go private, the services work.

First up is arrival at the hospital.

If you have an emergency (especially if you are travelling in an ambulance) you will find yourself entering the hospital through the 'Acıl' entrance.

This is the equivalent of A & E in Britain in fact the word 'acıl' means 'urgent' or 'emergency'.

If this does happen don't worry, as a translator from the 'Tourism Health Department' office will be called in to support you – indeed s/he should be there to meet you by the time you reach the hospital.

If you want to go and make an appointment to see a doctor you should enter through the door shown below.

Immediately inside this door, on the left you will see the sign for the office of the translators.

The open door behind the sign leads to the office where the medical translators are based, when not actually doing their job somewhere in the hospital.

They will guide you and help you throughout time spent in the Hospital.

The service opened four months ago and they have already treated almost 500 foreigners.

Of course you want to know what it costs, and we shall tell you about that in our next article.

For now, suffice it to say, if you have a residence permit you could be looking at a bargain.