The corruption prosecutor of Thessaloniki Argiris Dimopoulos has ordered an urgent preliminary examination, after a report was made by the director of the services department in the Greek National Health Service, who claims there have been misappropriations and maladministration to the benefit of private clinics. The Greek National Health Service employee claims that despite her perennial warnings and reports to the central administration of the organization, not only was there no substantial audit but she herself was reprimanded by the competent Ministry of Health council and was laid off by force of law! The prosecutor demands the Economic Crimes Enforcement Agency to conduct a full management audit to the organization. According to the report submitted to the corruption prosecutor, the Greek National Health Service employee in question started to confront her supervisor, when she herself refused to approve expenditure on which she claimed no audit had been conducted. As stated in the report on the prosecutor’s hands, citizens who had been treated in pathology departments, neurology departments and psychiatric clinics were forced to pay to the Greek National Health Service an additional amount of money ranging from 300 to 700 euro, apart from their regular financial participation, which as the employee claims is unlawful.

Furthermore, she claims that certain clinics with a license to operate as pathology or neurology clinics actually operate as clinics for chronic diseases and are paid by the Greek National Health Service as such. “This is not legitimate, because no license for chronic disease clinics has been granted anywhere in Greece yet. It is not possible for a license to be granted for a pathology clinic and actually operate as a chronic disease one, given that the patient stays in the clinic until they are treated as stated in the pathology clinic contract, whereas they stay until they pass as stated in the chronic disease contract. Consequently, the Greek National Health Service pays for a chronic disease’s medical expenses which results in damages for both the GNHS and the patient, while the clinic benefits at the expense of them all”, states the employee inter alia in her report to the prosecutor. She also mentions that after checking the files, huge discrepancies were established in the GNHS bills, ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 euro. As a matter of fact, the employee claims that a state hospital of Thessaloniki charged 150,000 euro for a medicine that actually costs 1,500 euro. In fact, as she states, when she contacted a hospital employee, he said: “Come on now, it’s not such a great amount. And who are you? We have been working with your supervisor just fine so far.” The employee claims that due to her persistent reports and her thorough audits on the expenditure, she was indicted for disciplinary offenses. “I tried to protect the public interest because I could not stand by and witness injustice and illegality bloom in our department and say nothing. But in the end, instead of being protected for my conscientiousness, I was subjected to humiliation and forcibly removed from my position”, highlights the GNHS employee in her report.