Doctors and administrators steal from hospitals in Cadiz

A MASSIVE scam has been discovered by the Guardia Civil which involved the defrauding of in excess of €250,000 from the Andalucian Health Service and the arrest of 22 people in Cadiz.

Those arrested include present and former senior figures and some doctors from the Puerto Real and Puerta del Mar de Cadiz Hospitals all of whom are accused of embezzlement of public funds, fraud, falsification of documents and membership of a criminal group.

It appears that those accused were entering false orders for prosthetics and other expensive pieces of medical equipment and then selling them on to third parties, whilst those in need of the items were denied access to them in a scam that ran from 2012 to 2014.

In one case, an individual who supposedly received one item, did not and eventually suffered an amputation which may have been completely unnecessary if they had been properly treated in the first place.

In total, records suggest that illegal documentation was entered for no less than 125 actions which resulted in the fraud and there were a number where all computer records have been destroyed.

Since the crimes were discovered, the authorities estimate that the saving has been far more than the amounts defrauded and that the right patients are being treated according to their needs.