Turkish authorities have revoked the license of nine private hospitals in Istanbul, where a criminal network of doctors and nurses He let newborns die to enrich himself through social security fraudThe Turkish public agency Anadolu reported this Sunday.
Police arrested 47 people, including four doctors and 18 nurses, Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunç confirmed today. The investigation into this alleged criminal network began a year ago, the minister said, but it was only in recent days that the matter came to light, when the hospitals involved were closed and their patients transferred to other clinics.
The authorities revoked the licenses of nine private hospitals in various districts of Istanbuland four of them have been sealed by the police and are under police surveillance. The investigation is secret, but Tunç confirmed that the detainees are accused of forming an illicit enrichment network and causing the deaths of babies through abandonment.
According to Anadolu, the gang operated through subcontractors in several neonatal intensive care units of hospitals under contract with the public social security system. The alleged leader of the conspiracy bribed ambulance service employees and municipal officials to refer as many newborns as possible to the units in his network and thus collect the corresponding public insurance rates.
At least 10 babies diedeither because they were kept much longer than recommended in an intensive care unit in an attempt to increase the network’s profits, or because they were not administered the appropriate medications, notes Anadolu.
According to NTV radio, the gang left the children only in the care of nurses, without the obligatory presence and supervision of doctors. The revelation of the affair caused great stir in Turkey due to the apparent impunity with which the gang was able to operate, even threatening to kill the prosecutor who investigated the case, Anadolu reports.
Much of the healthcare system in Turkey is public and operates through hospitals owned by the Ministry of Health, with doctors and nurses who are state civil servants, but there is also a network of private clinics. Some of them maintain agreements with the ministry to welcome patients in exchange for the corresponding payment from public social security.
