Ιατρική διαφθορά: Συνέπειες για την ποιότητα των προσφερόμενων ιατρικών υπηρεσιών

Abstract

Discussions about corruption issues in medical care refer almost exclusively to the consequences on the financial burden of health insurance programs and the state. The huge damage caused on the quality of the medical care and consequently on the health of the people is ignored. This article aims to designate aspects of corruption by focusing on its different types: the role of the pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of medical devices; additional revenue physicians earn from Diagnostic Laboratories which increases the cost of the ordered tests up to 20%; physicians who do not ask about the medical history and do not perform physical examinations of their patients; the nationwide illegal revenue physicians receive working in State Hospitals from patients' 'fees', and the huge incomes of private doctors, mainly surgeons. Furthermore, the article deals with the reports on side-effects in Greece which are unreliable and the fact that side-effects are not taken seriously into consideration when prescribing; the disorientation of the physicians exercised by misleading or fraudulent advertising of drugs or medical devices by Pharmaceutical Industries; the scandal of the management of the swine flu; the exploitation of the emotional burden of cancer on the population resulting in the approval of new anticancer drugs of low effectiveness and very high cost; the recalls of drug lots considered as dangerous by the Hellenic Drug Organization and the Ministry of Health; the development of dependence by hypnotics; and finally, the establishment of a careless ('je m'en fous') attitude in physicians and incapacity to perceive the patient's needs. The conclusion is that medical corruption, besides the financial burden that it incurs on the state, decisively decreases the quality of medical care with grave consequences for people's health and therefore the further financial burden of the social security system.