The Ministry of Health is investigating a number of doctors up and down the country who appear to be playing the system and making a fortune.
These so-called “turbodoctors” are netting as much as €47,000 a month and working as many as five jobs within the health system at once, writes Correio da Manhã newspaper.
And then there are cases of doctors putting in for “extra work” that they do during normal work hours.
All this at a time when news reports up and down the country suggest “the poor are condemned” due to a health service that is becoming “less and less accessible”.
Giving details of the extent of state doctors’ scams, Correio da Manhã reports on a case in Beja, for instance, where health inspectors have discovered three ophthalmologists and one orthopaedic surgeon who between them have netted over €500,000 for “additional surgeries” that were in fact done during regular shifts.
Health minister Paulo Macedo is now expected to demand that all public hospitals present a detailed list of the working hours and wages of every one of their professionals. The loophole comes as there is no up-to-date register of doctors’ hours, explains the newspaper, adding that it is commonplace therefore for doctors to work at the same place under at least two different names – “one their own, and the other in the name of a single-owned company” – and receive two different salaries.
Health service administrators on the lookout for high-earners have come up with a list of 50 doctors found to be receiving between €23,000 and €47,000 a month. Topping the list is a gastroenterologist in Lisbon who in November last year received €47,498 for just one month’s work, revealed CM.
