Merkez Ambulance is a private ambulance operator based in Istanbul, working across Turkey and internationally. We move patients — between hospitals, from hospital to home, from airport to clinic, and from Turkey to countries across Europe, the Caucasus and the Middle East.
Over half a century in the field
Our work began at a time when private ambulance services barely existed in Turkey and patient transport was largely improvised. Over more than fifty years both the sector and the way we do this work have changed fundamentally. What was once a vehicle and a driver is now a system: stretcher, oxygen, monitoring, defibrillator, suction, infusion pumps and, for intensive care transfers, a transport ventilator.
Equipment matters. The team matters more.
We have replaced and upgraded equipment at every stage, but the clearest difference has always been the crew. The same vehicle with a trained team and with an untrained one are not the same service. Every transfer is staffed by a driver trained in patient transport and at least one health professional; depending on the patient we add a paramedic, an emergency nurse or a physician.
What we do
- Patient transfer — planned and non-emergency journeys, hospital to hospital, hospital to home, airport to clinic.
- Intensive care transport — ventilated and monitored patients with the appropriate equipment and escort.
- International repatriation — air ambulance, commercial stretcher flights and long-distance road transfer, bed to bed.
- Standby cover — ambulances stationed at events, worksites, venues and healthcare facilities on contract.
How we work with insurers and clinics
We deal directly with insurance companies and assistance providers, supply the documentation they require and invoice them where a guarantee of payment is in place. For clinics treating international patients we handle the ground legs — airport collection, hotel-to-clinic transport during recovery and the return journey.
What has not changed
Equipment and regulation have both changed. The one thing that has not is that someone calls us on one of the hardest days of their life. A transfer may be a logistical job for us; for the person calling it never is. That is why we try to hold the whole chain to the same standard — from the first sentence on the phone to the final handover at the receiving hospital.
Our line is answered around the clock, every day of the year.