Cash-for-corpses Horror
Corruption in Poland's health service has led to grisly practices on an unprecedented scale, writes Kate Connolly.
By Guardian Newspapers, 1/30/2002
The revelations last week that medical staff in Poland have been involved in a long-standing gruesome cash-for-corpses scandal, has led to ambulance crews across the country facing a torrent of abuse.
Some doctors have reported receiving obscene telephone calls, in which callers have accused them of being murderers. Medics' vehicles have been smeared with faeces and swastikas and had stones thrown at them, even when they've been on their way to answer emergency calls.
Anger over what could turn out to be the biggest medical scandal in Poland's history is growing by the day, as more and more details come to light.
A police hotline set up to take calls from families suspecting foul play in the deaths of their relatives has prompted a flood of thousands of calls.
On Monday, the Polish justice minister, Barbara Piwnik, admitted that the scandal - in which medical staff are suspected of taking bribes of between ВЈ200 and ВЈ350 from funeral parlours in return for information on the deceased - was far more widespread than originally thought.
On Sunday, seven people, including doctors and funeral parlour staff, were arrested in connection with the allegations, following a six-month-long police investigation.
Not only are staff suspected of passing on information about the dead. There are also widespread suspicions that some patients were denied medical help in order to speed up death, or were injected with doses of the muscle relaxant Pavulon, which led to asphyxiation. The practice is thought to have been going on for a decade or more.
The investigation has focussed on a casualty ward in the central Polish city of Lodz (pronounced "woodge"). But emergency wards in three other Polish cities are now also under the spotlight. And a nation is outraged.
The doctors allegedly involved have been given appropriately macabre names: "The Angel of Death and Dr Mengele have been arrested," boomed the daily Rzespospolita on Monday, following the news that two doctors from Lodz had been picked up by police.
Police will give few details, except to say that the case will probably come to court in a few months' time. It is expected to be one of the largest medical court cases in Europe of the past few decades. Around 2,500 witnesses are due to be called to give evidence in the next few weeks. Mass exhumations are expected: an estimated 5,000 corpses could be involved, say investigators.
On Monday, an unnamed "key witness" revealed to Gazeta Wyborcza, the respected Warsaw daily which broke the story last week, even more gruesome details.
The witness cited the case of a patient, hanging between life and death, who was deliberately left to suffocate. "The medic rammed a pipe into the pharynx, but not in order to resuscitate him," the witness said. The pipe was pushed into the stomach, until "the patient threw up and choked on his own vomit. The doctor stood by, doing nothing." Another medic present immediately recommended the name of a funeral parlour to a distressed relative, the witness said.
The case has further increased the lack of confidence in Poland's public health service, which is grossly underfunded and thus open to corruption. Widespread reforms, introduced three years ago, have yet to kick in. Doctors are paid just ВЈ187 a month - said to be not enough to live on in the cities. The practice of giving the doctor a "present", such as a bottle of vodka, in return for treatment, is therefore commonplace.
For more serious complaints, a thick envelope is expected to be handed over. It is an open secret in Poland, that a gift increases the quality of treatment and shortens the waiting time for operations.
The practice in itself is now so customary that it is seen to be harmless, even by those doctors who do not follow it. But the doctor's union in Poland has warned of late that as a result of widespread bribery the system has become tainted through and through.
Warsaw doctor Mariusz Gujski told a German paper this week: "We have to dig out the black sheep from our ranks."
In an editorial, Gazeta Wyborcza warned of a drop in moral standards throughout the country. "For ourselves, our families, our colleagues, we always find extenuating circumstances.
"That stops the evil from being evil, and black becomes a grey in which everyone has a place. That's why we close our eyes." Link
Corruption in Poland's health service has led to grisly practices on an unprecedented scale, writes Kate Connolly.
By Guardian Newspapers, 1/30/2002
The revelations last week that medical staff in Poland have been involved in a long-standing gruesome cash-for-corpses scandal, has led to ambulance crews across the country facing a torrent of abuse.
Some doctors have reported receiving obscene telephone calls, in which callers have accused them of being murderers. Medics' vehicles have been smeared with faeces and swastikas and had stones thrown at them, even when they've been on their way to answer emergency calls.
Anger over what could turn out to be the biggest medical scandal in Poland's history is growing by the day, as more and more details come to light.
A police hotline set up to take calls from families suspecting foul play in the deaths of their relatives has prompted a flood of thousands of calls.
On Monday, the Polish justice minister, Barbara Piwnik, admitted that the scandal - in which medical staff are suspected of taking bribes of between ВЈ200 and ВЈ350 from funeral parlours in return for information on the deceased - was far more widespread than originally thought.
On Sunday, seven people, including doctors and funeral parlour staff, were arrested in connection with the allegations, following a six-month-long police investigation.
Not only are staff suspected of passing on information about the dead. There are also widespread suspicions that some patients were denied medical help in order to speed up death, or were injected with doses of the muscle relaxant Pavulon, which led to asphyxiation. The practice is thought to have been going on for a decade or more.
The investigation has focussed on a casualty ward in the central Polish city of Lodz (pronounced "woodge"). But emergency wards in three other Polish cities are now also under the spotlight. And a nation is outraged.
The doctors allegedly involved have been given appropriately macabre names: "The Angel of Death and Dr Mengele have been arrested," boomed the daily Rzespospolita on Monday, following the news that two doctors from Lodz had been picked up by police.
Police will give few details, except to say that the case will probably come to court in a few months' time. It is expected to be one of the largest medical court cases in Europe of the past few decades. Around 2,500 witnesses are due to be called to give evidence in the next few weeks. Mass exhumations are expected: an estimated 5,000 corpses could be involved, say investigators.
On Monday, an unnamed "key witness" revealed to Gazeta Wyborcza, the respected Warsaw daily which broke the story last week, even more gruesome details.
The witness cited the case of a patient, hanging between life and death, who was deliberately left to suffocate. "The medic rammed a pipe into the pharynx, but not in order to resuscitate him," the witness said. The pipe was pushed into the stomach, until "the patient threw up and choked on his own vomit. The doctor stood by, doing nothing." Another medic present immediately recommended the name of a funeral parlour to a distressed relative, the witness said.
The case has further increased the lack of confidence in Poland's public health service, which is grossly underfunded and thus open to corruption. Widespread reforms, introduced three years ago, have yet to kick in. Doctors are paid just ВЈ187 a month - said to be not enough to live on in the cities. The practice of giving the doctor a "present", such as a bottle of vodka, in return for treatment, is therefore commonplace.
For more serious complaints, a thick envelope is expected to be handed over. It is an open secret in Poland, that a gift increases the quality of treatment and shortens the waiting time for operations.
The practice in itself is now so customary that it is seen to be harmless, even by those doctors who do not follow it. But the doctor's union in Poland has warned of late that as a result of widespread bribery the system has become tainted through and through.
Warsaw doctor Mariusz Gujski told a German paper this week: "We have to dig out the black sheep from our ranks."
In an editorial, Gazeta Wyborcza warned of a drop in moral standards throughout the country. "For ourselves, our families, our colleagues, we always find extenuating circumstances.
"That stops the evil from being evil, and black becomes a grey in which everyone has a place. That's why we close our eyes." Link
posted by BEING HAD at 6:33 AM
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