UK medical reports and GP letters translation into Turkish

Documents in this group

A GP letter (aile hekimi yazısı) is a short signed letter from your practice confirming a diagnosis, medication or fitness. A hospital discharge summary (epikriz) records an admission, the findings, the treatment and the follow-up. Specialist reports, imaging reports, laboratory results, mental health assessments and fit notes are the other documents Turkish bodies see. All are signed by a doctor registered with the General Medical Council or by a hospital department, and all are written in clinical English with abbreviations that mean nothing to a Turkish reader until they are expanded.

Tell us what the report is for, because the receiving body shapes the translation: a military health board wants the diagnosis in the terms of its own regulations, a licence file wants the fitness statement, and a hospital wants the medication list in full.

Turkish bodies that ask for medical documents

• Askerlik health files. A man liable for service who has a condition affecting fitness sends UK reports through the consulate to the military recruitment office. The Turkish military health board makes the decision and may require examination in Türkiye, but the UK reports are the evidence it starts from. See dövizle askerlik and military service deferment.
• Turkish driving licence renewal at the consulate. The London consulate's note on renewing a Turkish licence asks for a UK medical report with a Turkish translation by a sworn translator authorised by the consulate; for that file use a translator on the consulate's list.
• SGK. Disability pension (malulen emeklilik) and incapacity claims by people insured in Türkiye who were treated in the UK; SGK's own board reviews the translated reports.
• Turkish hospitals and doctors. Continuing treatment after a move, surgery scheduled in Türkiye, or a second opinion.
• Courts. Personal injury and medical negligence claims, custody cases where a parent's or child's health is in issue, and capacity questions in inheritance or guardianship cases.
• Insurers and employers in Türkiye handling a claim or a sick leave that began in the UK.

Apostille for a doctor's report

Medical reports are among the documents the FCDO legalises when signed by a UK-registered doctor, so a signed GP letter or consultant's report can usually go straight to the Legalisation Office without a solicitor step; unsigned printouts from an online patient record cannot, and need a solicitor or notary certification first. Courts and SGK sometimes ask for the apostille; hospitals and the askerlik file do not. Once the document is as the receiving body wants it, the translator sworn before an Ankara notary translates the report and any apostille, and the notary attaches the translation to a copy. For a court, the notarised translation can be apostilled at the kaymakamlık for £15. Read medical translation for how we handle terminology and confidentiality.

Clinical accuracy

Medical documents are translated by translators who work in medicine, and every report is revised by a second translator before the sworn translator signs. Drug names are given as the international non-proprietary name with the UK brand in brackets, doses and units are copied exactly, ICD codes are kept, and abbreviations (BP, HbA1c, MRI, PRN) are expanded once in Turkish. Where a UK term has no Turkish equivalent, for example a fit note, we describe it in a translator's note. Nothing is summarised or omitted; a Turkish health board reads the translation as it would read the original.

Price and turnaround

A GP letter is one page of 1,000 characters, £6.50; a discharge summary 2 to 4 pages, £13.00 to £26.00; a full specialist report or a bundle of hospital records is priced by the page, with the economy tier at 20 per cent less for long files. The Ankara notary tariff of about £13.50 per page plus £5 handling is added for the notarised version, and £15 for an apostille of the translation. No UK VAT is charged. Short letters are ready in one working day, longer reports in 2 to 4; the fast option halves that for 60 per cent more. The PDF comes by e-mail; the wet-sealed original, which SGK and courts keep, goes by courier for £30 to the UK or to Türkiye. No collection.