Istanbul traffic is one of the worst in the world. However, that is not an issue for the rich. Lucky for them that the health services are privatized in Turkey.

Since the privatization of everything, including health services, private ambulance services popped up everywhere charging exuberant prices for those they carried. However, there may not be enough dead or dying on the streets to justify or make money for the investors. Why should the ambulances sit idle, not making any profit, during a light business day? This doesn’t make sense for neither the corporation owners, nor the rich people who are trying to find a way to beat the everyday traffic.

Ambulance companies are usually and mostly not regulated or licensed. However, we know how much the business owners hate regulation and licensing. They claim the “big government” impedes their profit-making endeavors. Licensed or not, legal or not, regulated or not, business is business. The private ambulances in Turkey will carry you anywhere you want to go much faster than anybody else can, if you have the money.

Just to prove this business model is very much active and used, a reporter in Istanbul from Milliyet newspaper hired an ambulance on a 40-km rout that takes around 1 hour 20 minutes to travel at rush time traffic. The ambulance took only 38 minutes to reach the destination in heavy traffic.

The reporter first called the ambulance firm and agreed on 400TL (around 68 US dollars) to transport a patient from one hospital to another hospital. Then he called the same service but told them that he was a businessman and needed to reach a business meeting. Without any hesitation, the service asked the place of the meeting and when the businessman needed to be there. He was also assured that in 30 minutes the ambulance would drop him off at the door of his meeting. However, he needed to pay 700TL (110 US dollars). When he protested, the company representative replied, “You are hiring us not for a health issue bur for business. This is our regular price for business transportation and we are sorry but we cannot give you any discounts.”

After agreeing and hiring the ambulance, the reporter sat in the patient’s chair and the ambulance rushed through the traffic, sirens wailing. When traffic was heavy and it could not use even the emergency lane, the driver would turn on his loud speaker to shout orders to other drivers, “Open up the road, we have an emergency, move to either side and let me pass through.”

Although the reporter was promised 30 minutes, the ambulance reached the destination in 38 minutes.  The driver apologized for the delay citing heavier than normal traffic.

Under an agreement with the private corporations the traffic police do not write tickets to private ambulances.

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