A relative of a Covid patient was offered a “bed in the intensive care unit” for 3,500 euros.

A prosecutor in Thessaloniki is investigating incidents where unknown persons offer relatives of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 a bed in an intensive care unit at a price of 3,500 euros or more.

Hospitals in Thessaloniki report daily a shortage of beds in intensive care units and a large number of intubated patients in regular wards. Taking advantage of the anxiety of patients and their relatives, some individuals suggested drugs against Covid-19 or even monoclonic antibodies.

The most recent incident reportedly involved the wife of a patient who was admitted to Agios Pavlos Hospital but was intubated outside the ICU. An unknown woman called her and offered a bed in the intensive care unit for 3,500 euros.

According to the head physician of the hospital, Agios Pavlos Odysseas Katsakas, last week he received a call from a police officer from Rhodes and reportedthat his father-in-law, who was intubated outside the ICU, was offered a bed in intensive care.

The woman claimed that she works in a hospital and has a lot of influence to help with his case. She told the patient’s daughter that if she wants her father to stay alive, and this “is only possible if he is transferred to intensive care,” she must give her 3,500 euros.

The policeman gave the head doctor of the hospital both the data of his father-in-law and his wife, as well as some of the contact details of the alleged fraudster.

Ministry of Health sources told the news site newsit, that in hospitals, mainly in northern Greece, there are scammers who find people in hospitals undergoing treatment in difficult conditions and, under the pretext of finding a bed for them in the intensive care unit, drugs against Covid. -19 or new monoclonal antibodies, for this they take thousands of euros from desperate relatives of patients.

Please note that only 2000 doses monoclonic antibodies were transported to Greece via the EU and are being administered according to a very strict protocol in just ten hospitals across the country.

A similar incident with the offer of a bed in the intensive care unit took place for a patient at Papanikolaou hospital, Katsakas said.

The chief doctor of the hospital handed over to the prosecutor of the first instance of Thessaloniki all the information he had on the case and said that “such incidents occur without the knowledge of the administration.”

PS The question, of course, is how the scammers get the phones of the patients’ relatives. Due to the Covid protocol, relatives are not allowed to visit their loved ones, but their phone numbers are entered in the patient’s registry anyway. This means that investigators need to look for those who have access to this data.

…



Source link