The Public Funds Prosecution has uncovered that 11 MPs and 27 of their supporters in seven governorates accepted bribes from patients to receive state-financed medical treatment. According to investigators, the bribes ranged from LE1000 to LE10,000.
Detectives from the Public Funds Prosecution in the governorates visited several cities and villages and asked residents who had received state-financed medical treatment about the procedures they underwent. They also asked about the costs of the operations, the names of the MPs who helped them receive approval for treatment and whether the operation was carried out free of charge.
A second team of public prosecutors obtained files from the Ministry of Health regarding state-financed medical treatment from January 2009 to January 2010. They found that nine ministers and several rich public figures had been approved for medical treatment by the state.
A third team visited a number of public, private and university hospitals and acquired documents proving that the wealthy individuals actually received state-financed medical services.
Investigations, which are ongoing in 23 governorates, discovered that 80 percent of referrals for state-financed medical treatment are sent to private hospitals, where procedures cost four times as much as they would at public hospitals, and are therefore a waste of public money. Those receiving treatment shared the price differential with officials at the private hospitals, said investigators, however, they did not indicate whether the MPs involved had also taken part of the money.
Meanwhile, a number of MPs criticized the investigation by the Minister of the Interior, saying such investigations violated their immunity parliamentary immunity. These same MPs had heard from supporters that investigators were gathering information by asking patients about the MPs who facilitated their state-financed medical treatment.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
