Doctors requiring bribes rarely get prosecuted
- Written by E.Tsiliopoulos
There are hundreds of complaints about doctors who ask for money under the table to offer services, although few of them come to justice. But even then they receive mild penalties.
Disciplinary councils impose slap-on-the-wrist penalties to oath breaking doctors arrested getting graft money, and despite dozens of complaints about doctors asking for bribes, only 12 cases were criminally prosecuted in the last two years, according to the General Inspector of Public Administration.
After the furor caused by the unjust death of a heart patient who was asked to pay the attending physician under the table to undergo necessary surgery, newspaper Ethnos revealed the case of a surgeon from Thessaloniki who was caught red-handed taking 500 euros in March 2011.
This particular doctor was convicted by justice but eventually "acquitted" by the Central Disciplinary Board of Physicians decision taken this month. The board sentenced him to one year of forced absence from duties and the next day he returned to work after the sentence was counted in with his pre-trial absence. For this case, the General Inspector of Public Administration Leandros Rakintzis will lodge an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court against the decision of the Central Disciplinary Board seeking dismissal of this doctor.
The acquittal of the doctor who was caught red-handed taking a bribe prompted a strong reaction ofrom the General Inspector of Public Administration Leandros Rakintzis. Replying to a question by Ethnos, Mr. Rakintzis stated that he knew the decision of the Central Disciplinary Board of NHS doctors and he is determined to appeal to the Council of State against the decision of the Disciplinary Board seeking the dismissal of the doctor.
