Medical practice rules and market latest: what changed for new clinics by October 2026
The latest on medical practice rules and the market, as of October 2026, falls under three headings: promotion rules, search behaviour and market data. Health promotion is governed by the Regulation on Promotion and Information Activities in Health Services, published in the Official Gazette of 12 November 2025, issue 33075; sponsored promotion is allowed in the first month after opening, while fees and discounts are banned. Since 18 February 2026, Google offers AI Mode and AI Overviews in Turkey. The Ministry of Health’s bulletin of 30 September 2026 puts the number of doctors in 2025 at 232,315.
For a newly opened private practice or polyclinic, this means the first month is a one-time announcement window and informative content carries the rest. Patients increasingly see the answer to their question in an AI summary; the market is growing, but so are competitors. In the sources we could reach, no new amendment to the regulation appears as of October 2026. Check with your provincial health directorate and medical chamber before each step.
What happened: three changes, three dates
Three developments in the past year directly affect a newly opened health business. One changes the rules, one changes how patients search, one changes the size of the market. The table below lists them by date with their effect on a new practice. The rules line is binding; the other two are context that shapes your plan.
| Date | What happened? | Effect on a new practice or polyclinic |
|---|---|---|
| 12 November 2025 | The new promotion regulation takes effect, replacing the 2023 text | Sponsored promotion in month one; unsponsored information after |
| 18 February 2026 | Google opens AI Mode and AI Overviews in Turkey | Patients can see answers in a summary on the results page |
| 30 September 2026 | The Health Statistics Yearbook 2025 News Bulletin is published | Demand and doctor supply grow together |
No speculation
If you hear a rumour about an amendment, do not change your plan before it appears in the Official Gazette. A rule is a rule from the day it is published.
What is in force in the promotion rules?
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- Article 5(1)(j): the opening month
- Article 5(1)(i): unsponsored listing
- Article 5(1)(ı): the site’s imprint
The regulation bans advertising and sets rules for promotion and information. Four provisions matter most to a new practice: the opening-month exception, listings on search engines and social media, the website’s imprint details and the entry-into-force article. Knowing the article numbers helps when you talk to an agency or the review commission. We list the full rules in medical practice advertising rules.
Article 5(1)(j): the opening month
Health institutions may run sponsored promotion and information that complies with the regulation on all platforms during the first month after their opening date. The clock starts at opening and runs once.
Article 5(1)(i): unsponsored listing
Health institutions and professionals may list on search engines and social media provided it is not paid, sponsored or aimed at boosting. Free listings such as a Google Business Profile stay within this frame.
Article 5(1)(ı): the site’s imprint
The website must clearly show the last update date of its information and contact details for the site editor. Put these two lines at the foot of every page; the back office of the site is open to inspection too.
What is still banned or conditional?
The basic line holds. Fees, discounts, campaigns and promotions cannot appear in promotion, and patient thanks cannot be used for advertising-style posts. The “20 percent off for our opening” poster familiar from shops does not go up in a practice or polyclinic. The six points below are where new practices most often trip.
- Giving fee, discount, campaign or promotion information: article 5(1)(m).
- Advertising-style posts built on thanks from patients or relatives: article 5(1)(e).
- Using a specialist title based on a certificate: article 5(1)(d).
- Before-and-after images without matching conditions and dates: article 7(1)(f).
- Paid or boosted listings after the first month: article 5(1)(i).
- Information pages with no update date or editor contact: article 5(1)(ı).
Reviews conclude within 45 days
Notification files referred to the provincial review commission are decided within 45 days at the latest. A single non-compliant post can mean spending the first months after opening in that process.
Check the rule first
Before each post, check the regulation, your provincial health directorate and your medical chamber. This list is not legal advice; it is a working list drawn from the articles.
What happened on the search side?
Since 18 February 2026, Google offers AI Mode and AI Overviews in Turkey, powered by Gemini 3. When a patient types something like “internal medicine open in the evening in Kadıköy”, they may see an AI summary at the top of the results page. Because the summary draws on web pages, a practice without a page that answers that question clearly has a weaker chance of being mentioned.
No guarantee of being recommended
No one can guarantee that a business will appear in an AI answer. What can be done is to build readable, recognisable infrastructure and measure it.
Follow the Turkish-language picture
We track AI Mode in Turkish search in Google AI Mode latest. We look at what it means for health care towards 2027 in medical practices and AI in 2027.
What happened on the market side?
The ministry bulletin published on 30 September 2026 covers 2025. Doctor visits reach 1,138,060,185 and visits per person rise to 13.2. The number of doctors grows 5.1 percent in a year to 232,315. Of 1,553 active hospitals, 540 are private. Demand and supply are both growing; when both grow, patients do not simply walk in on their own.
Competitors on the same street
More than ten thousand new doctors join the profession every year. In an affluent district, that means new signs on the same avenue; patients compare before they choose.
Selective patients, findable practices
Patients with premium expectations do not want to wait; they want information right away. A practice stands out by being findable and clear, not by price.
What it means for you: what should a new practice or polyclinic do now?
The three developments point to one order. Make a compliant announcement in the first month. Then answer patients’ questions with pages approved by your doctors, free of prices and promises. Finally, build those pages so that search engines and AI can read them. The full framework is in the new medical practice promotion guide, and the first three months are planned in a new medical practice’s first 90 days.
Information is the safest ground
Say you open an internal medicine polyclinic in Bakırköy and patients ask whether they need to fast before a thyroid test. A short answer page approved by your doctor, with no prices, both follows the rules and gets searched.
Turnkey infrastructure
To build this foundation in one go, look at the AI SEO Campaign: TRY 36,000 + VAT at a fixed price for 108 articles across 6 question groups, structured data, llms.txt, Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools setup, delivered in 30 days. Twelve businesses are taken per period, with a 10 percent coupon. There is no guarantee of being recommended; have the articles approved by your doctors before publication.
Quick Summary
- The promotion regulation in force is dated 12 November 2025, issue 33075.
- Sponsored promotion is allowed in the first month after opening, unsponsored after.
- Fees, discounts, campaigns and patient thanks remain banned.
- Since 18 February 2026, Google offers AI Mode and AI Overviews in Turkey.
- In 2025 there are 232,315 doctors and 1.14 billion doctor visits.
- For a new practice: announce, answer with doctor approval, build readable infrastructure.
Short Glossary
AI Overviews: AI Overviews is the Google Search feature used to answer a question with an AI summary at the top of the results page.
Unsponsored listing: Unsponsored listing is the permitted route used by a health institution to appear on search engines or social media without paying or boosting.
Provincial review commission: Provincial review commission is the board used to examine health promotion in a province for compliance with the regulation.
Next Step
The rules are clear and search is changing. Apply to the AI SEO Campaign; share your site and the questions your patients ask, and we start with a diagnosis card.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sık Sorulan Sorular
Only the regulation. Google’s product change and the ministry’s statistics are signals that tell you where to build your plan.
The text in force is the regulation published in the Official Gazette of 12 November 2025, issue 33075. As of October 2026, no new amendment appears in the sources we could reach; confirm the current status with your provincial health directorate.
Under article 5 of the regulation, for the first month after the opening date, on all platforms, provided the rules are followed. Fees, discounts and campaigns remain banned in that month too.
No. There is no guarantee of being recommended; readable, recognisable infrastructure is built and measured. The campaign is TRY 36,000 + VAT at a fixed price; with 20 percent VAT that is TRY 43,200, and you should check the current rate on your invoice.
Updated: October 2026