Filenews 25 February 2025
One of the cases of alleged abuse of the General Health System (GHS) against taxpayers has taken the path of justice. In fact, it is currently set for a hearing before the Permanent Assize Court of Nicosia.
The accused are four persons, three natural and one legal. In a central position in the frame of the case is a 64-year-old neurosurgeon, while what he is accused of is serious.
They are set after 2021 and have to do with the actions of the 64-year-old doctor when his contract with the GHS was suspended by the Health Insurance Organisation, as issues had arisen with medical registrations in the system. Despite the suspension of the contract, the neurosurgeon allegedly continued to perform his duties by other means.
Testimonies put before the police during the investigation of the case, on which the indictment was based, indicate that the doctor continued to examine patients and even submit them to operations, using the contract of his 40-year-old son, also a doctor, of the same specialty.
At the same time, his son lives permanently abroad, specifically in a Central European country. However, he often travelled to Cyprus and had a contract with the General Health System. In some cases, according to the testimonies, the 64-year-old doctor informed his patients that he stated that the health services provided would be declared to the 40-year-old.
The witness material collected by police investigators shows that the 64-year-old even performed operations in a private clinic in a coastal town, always declaring his 40-year-old son instead of himself as the attending physician. And all this while the 64-year-old neurosurgeon's contract with the GHS had been suspended by the Health Insurance Organisation.
The 64-year-old also faces a charge of interfering with a court proceeding in four separate cases. According to what he is accused of, he tried an equal number of times to intervene in such a way as to influence people who were called to give a statement to the Police.
All these acts that were investigated by police reportedly cost a turnover of around €40,000.
Four people are charged in the case, as we noted. They are the 64-year-old, his 40-year-old son, the director of the clinic where operations were performed, as well as the clinic as a legal entity.
The charges in the indictment relate to offences of conspiracy to defraud the Republic, extortion of money by false representations, fraud, money laundering and interference with judicial process.
The 64-year-old doctor is represented by Alexandros Clerides, his son by lawyer Christos Triantaphyllides, while the legal defense of the clinic and its director was undertaken by George Papaioannou. For the prosecution, the case is handled by the lawyer of the Republic A, Haris Karaolidou.
We remind you that as we revealed last week, the Cyprus Police has been investigating since the end of last January another serious complaint against a well-known doctor contracted with the GHS. The complaint was made by the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) for a doctor of a specific specialty and concerns false entries in the system. Registrations of claims, that is, for services, which never seem to have been offered to beneficiaries.
In recent months, penalties have been imposed by the HIO for violations by doctors and/or medical units contracted with the GHS. It is indicative that last September it imposed fines totalling €49,100 on 51 health service providers. These concerned doctors, personal and specialists, as well as pharmacists.
