Corrientes: A doctor charges $ 30,000 plus surgery at a public hospital

A doctor at the San Juan Bautista Public Hospital in Santo Tome, Corientes, was accused of charging an additional 30,000 pesos for an operation he performed on a patient who also had social work that provided 100% coverage.

The fact was condemned by the employer of a rural worker before the Social Work of Rural Staff and the stevedores of the Argentine Republic (Osprera), after the worker told him that the doctor who operated on his daughter demanded payment of 30,000 pesos as a plus for the operation.

The legal adviser of the Regional Osprera confirmed that they had received the complaint and that the actions of the medical specialist were “illegal practice”.

“This is doubly aggravating because it was carried out in a public hospital, with public supplies and funds and where the intervention should be free, and also because social work covers the whole practice,” the lawyer explained.

He, meanwhile, said they had presented the case to the National Health Supervision and the Provincial Executive Unit (UEP) of the Ministry of Health in Corrientes, and expressed hope that “a remedial sanction will be applied”.

Somariva announced that they would look for the village worker “to get back the money he paid”, although he admitted that it was becoming difficult “because the doctor charged him illegally, did not issue an invoice and the village worker could not prove it”.

The lawyer stressed that “public hospitals must guarantee health, whether they have social work or not, because it is a human right that must be guaranteed” and said that the spread of the case will serve to stop the abuse of vulnerable people or in a state of insecurity, who have to sell what they have or have to pay in order to pay an illegal and illegal bonus ”.

Meanwhile, Ignacio Alvarez, the father of the young woman who underwent surgery, said that in order to collect the 30,000 pesos the doctor would ask for, JR must borrow from family and friends.

He also said that the operation of his 20-year-old daughter, diagnosed with gallstones, “went wrong, she was left with a stone” and she had to be transferred to the hospital in Posadas (Misiones).

“I hope they manage to return this money to us, because all together and now we have to return what they borrowed from us,” he added.