Hippocratic ethics are shown to be skin deep
A group of 30 doctors from Athens’s Georgios Gennimatas Hospital are to face a prosecutor, accused of turning the institution into a private clinic by carrying out plastic surgery for paying clients under the guise of urgent operations. A report issued by public administration inspectors alleges that the doctors forged patients’ test results and changed names on files in order to prioritize cosmetic operations. Meanwhile patients with serious ailments were discharged on the pretext of a temporary release. Instead of being readmitted they are alleged to have been added to a long waiting list while rhinoplasty and varicose vein operations were pushed through. The scam came to light after hospital staff noticed a sudden increase in the number of cases described as emergencies while many hospital beds were emptying.
