The Health and Social Service Employees Union (SES) has called on Turkish authorities to reinforce hospital buildings in İstanbul against a potential earthquake, the Mezopotamya news agency reported.
The Yayla, Şişli Etfal, Çapa, Cerrahpaşa and Haydarpaşa Numune hospitals as well as the Süreyyapaşa Chest Disease and Thoracic Surgery Teaching and Research Hospital in İstanbul wouldn’t withstand an earthquake, according to members of the SES İstanbul branch.
Turkey is in one of the world’s most active earthquake zones. Its Marmara region suffered a 7.4-magnitude earthquake in 1999, leading to the death of more than 17,000 people.
Experts have long warned a large earthquake could devastate İstanbul, a megalopolis of 16 million people filled with rickety homes.
İstanbul has grown substantially since 1999, becoming a magnet for people attracted by its booming economy — and oblivious to the active fault line running along its southern edge.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck near the Turkish city of Gaziantep – home to around 2 million people and on the border with Syria – as people were sleeping on February 6 was followed by dozens of aftershocks, including a 7.5-magnitude temblor that jolted the region in the middle of search and rescue efforts the same day.
According to the Turkish Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate, 33,143 buildings in were severely damaged by the earthquakes in southeastern Turkey.
In February the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 15 hospitals have been damaged and numerous health facilities affected in Turkish provinces hit by the earthquakes.
According to an opposition party lawmaker, patients in the intensive care unit of Iskenderun State Hospital in Hatay province died due to a power outage after the major earthquakes.
