The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Río Negro is investigating doctors from different locations in the province who issued apocryphal health certificates to justify absences of state workers from different departments and whose issuance was priced according to the number of days requested by the patient.
The secretary of the Public Service of the province, Tania Lastra, denounced that the doctors “used a price table based on the number of days they needed, the more days the higher those values.”
During the course of the investigation, it emerged that patients contacted doctors via WhatsApp and requested medical leaves, clarifying the number of days they intended to be absent from work. In the response, the professional sent a form, to be completed by the supposed patient, and the corresponding fee for the issuance. “There is a table of how much a certificate costs for so many days“, said.
The high level of absenteeism in the different areas that depend on the government aroused suspicions about the genuineness of the documents presented by the workers, many of which were signed by the same doctors.
The governor of the province Alberto Weretilneck, with the data collected during the investigation, denounced two of the doctors suspected of participating in the maneuver. It is believed that there would be more than 20 professionals involved.
The presentation was carried out by the State Prosecutor’s Office, headed by Gastón Pérez Estevan, and within the framework of the proceedings, homes and offices belonging to the doctors involved were raided.
The case investigated is a possible fraud to the detriment of the public administration, based on the granting of medical certificates that recorded false diagnoses of non-existent diseases or work impediments.
Lastra assured that the doctors “would have issued hundreds of irregular medical certificates, granting extensive unjustified licenses, causing millions in embezzlement.” Only one professional granted more than 2,181 days of medical leave.
Weretilneck, for her part, explained that “one of the professionals investigated delivered 20 certificates per day, charged them, and in one month more than 300 were delivered. There is no way she can have the hours of the day to care for so many patients.” With the intervention of this doctor, the State loses more than $260 million.
Strikingly, one of the doctors investigated is a pediatrician. According to the investigations carried out by the Executive, the doctors had a tariff with different values, which varied according to the number of days requested by the “client.”
In some cases, payment was made through virtual channels, a fact that is also part of the investigation, although there are also records of cash cancellations.
One of the doctors reported had a notice in his WhatsApp status informing how much he charged for issuing a health certificate to request a medical license, information that is part of the file as “first-hand evidentiary material.”
The investigation will also fall on the employees who presented these apocryphal documents to take leaves for health reasons, who could be sanctioned or even fired.
“There are cases of teachers who have not worked for two years, renewing their medical licenses on a recurring basis. These are cases that are being evaluated,” government sources assured.
The investigation is in the hands of the chief prosecutor of the First Judicial District, Juan Pedro Peralta, with jurisdiction in Viedma, the capital of Rio Negro.
In a recorded message, Weretilneck announced that the government will be ruthless with the doctors who issued the certificates. ”When we talked about falsification of certificates, we also talked about the negative economic impact that this type of behavior has for the Provincial State,” the governor published this Wednesday, and concluded: “We are going to do so until the doctors we have under investigation lose their professional registration, we are not going to allow them to illegally continue harming the provincial State and all the people of Rio Negro.””.
