World Newspaper - Special Issue 18 October 2012

Osmanoğlu Hospital Founder Dr. Osmanoğlu Hospital, who spent his childhood with the death of his father at a young age, and succeeded in becoming a doctor by completing his education under difficult conditions. Salih Osmanoğlu has achieved many firsts in the field of private hospital management in Turkey. Continuing his services in the hospital despite being 91 years old today, Dr. Osmanoğlu stated that he is one of the most successful students of his hometown Kastamonu. Osmanoğlu, I left İnebolu in 1927 when my father moved the timber trade to Samsun when I was five years old. We stayed there for 10 years. I finished primary and secondary school in Samsun. At that time, my two uncles and my father died of tuberculosis, each six months apart. At that time, when someone infected with TB, it could take the whole family. When I was only 13-14 years old, everyone around thought that after the death of my father and uncles, it was my turn.Because my father was only 45 and my uncles were 35-40 years old, I mean, they were very young. After these bad times we went through, we suffered a financial devastation and returned to İnebolu. Noting that he took the Leyli Meccani exams after he returned to İnebolu and that he was the only one who won the exam from Kastamonu, Dr. Osmanoğlu, I studied at Leyli Meccani for three years. I was a very hardworking student. During those three years, I always worked in the library of the İnebolu Community Center and in the billiard room during the summer months. My math was better when I was in my freshman year than my seniors in high school. That's how I was able to win the school anyway. I completed my education in 1940 by having Leyli Meccani finished. I was teaching the kids around. I will never forget, I had a student, although I gave only five lessons, the boy later became a minister. My mathematics was really good, but with my success in mathematics, since the medical school accepted me instead of being an engineer, I avoided being a burden on my family by taking the exam again and I entered medicine. While I was studying in Istanbul, I could only go to İnebolu for one week a year, except that I was always working. I graduated from medical school in 1946, both by working and studying, without losing any years. After completing my military and compulsory medical service in Anatolia, I returned to Istanbul and completed my Internal Medicine residency at Haseki Training Hospital between 1953 and 1956. Until 1965, I worked as the Chief Assistant in this clinic for many years and I left my job there that year, telling him about his difficult struggle in those years.

We established Aksaray Vatan Hospital in 1974

Noting that he turned the Laleli Diagnostic Clinic, which he founded in 1956, into a 30-bed private hospital in 1966, Dr. Salih Osmanoğlu, "With Laleli Diagnostic Clinic, I laid the foundations of Turkey's first private hospital." In 1981, I closed the hospital part of the Laleli Diagnostic Clinic and donated the polyclinic part to the Red Crescent. We put Aksaray Vatan Hospital, which we laid the foundations of in 1972 together with my 18 physician friends, into service as Turkey's first and largest private hospital in 1974. In those years, there was no hospital larger than 100 beds in Europe. First, we said that we would have 100 beds, and the hospital would be six floors. But for this investment I made, twice more permission was given and an eight-storey, 200-bed hospital emerged. Today, 75 percent of the hospital belongs to us and the remaining 25 percent belongs to Azmi Ofluoğlu, who runs it. “We opened this Osmanoğlu Hospital in Şişli in 1981,” he said.

Scholarships for hundreds of students

Stating that he worked as the most active member in aid and country development foundations throughout his life, and continued his work, Dr. Salih Osmanoğlu announced that they established the İnebolu Health and Education Foundation with the love of being from İnebolu. Explaining that they have given scholarships to hundreds of students from the past to the present, Dr. Osmanoğlu stated that with this foundation, they built around 10-15 buildings in İnebolu and taught the students. In addition to this, he stated that they gave scholarships to 35 to 50 students. Salih Osmanoğlu said that they do not look at poverty or wealth differences for scholarships, they consider the success of the student. Noting that they also provide medical machine or ambulance support to hospitals, Dr. Osmanoglu. There's a five-story antique house inherited from my mother's family. We turned it into a Culture House. In this house, there are unseen photographs of Atatürk, aerial views of İnebolu, and photographs of the students and teachers of that time. A valuable literature teacher gifted us a library of 5,000 books and a house in Istanbul. We built girls' dormitories in İnebolu for her. We placed the 5,000 books he gave us in our culture house. We have a very broad knowledge and culture department. said.

Also, mentioning that they had a 40-bed nursing home built in İnebolu, Dr. Osmanoğlu, We have made this nursing home a place where our elderly people can stay comfortably. There are toilets and televisions in each room. It is on a high place by the sea and its left side is completely forested, it is heartening. It ranks fifth in Turkey in terms of luxury and beauty. It has 35 employees. This nursing home has a budget of 700 thousand TL, if we divide it by months, it is approximately 50 thousand TL. It benefits the town of Inebolu, it works like a factory without a chimney," he said.

Stating that they have built a jam factory in order to develop agriculture in Inebolu and its surroundings and to help farmers develop, Dr. Osmanoğlu, One of my main goals here was to have our farmer collect the fruit and process it in the factory. Because sometimes our farmers are not picked and rot because they can't sell their fruits. My second goal was to open a second employment door for our farmers, he said.

Our founder, Dr.Salih Osmanoğlu, was deemed worthy of the 2008 Outstanding Service Award by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for his services through the foundation he founded. This award was presented by the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Mr. Köksal Toptan, at the award ceremony held in the parliament on Thursday, July 10, 2008.