Six Oncology Surgeons at Timișoara Hospital Accused of Bribery

Six surgeons and a nurse from the Timișoara Municipal Emergency Clinic Hospital – General Surgery Clinic 2 – Oncology were placed under judicial control for taking bribes, announced the Prosecutor’s Office of the Timiș Court. Investigators say the six doctors and the nurse took sums of money from 46 patients or their relatives.

According to the investigators, the bribe was received in the form of envelopes with money, but sometimes it consisted of jars of honey or broth.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Timiș Court, between April 15, 2022 and July 19, 2024, the first of the doctors, a surgeon at the General Surgery Clinic 2 – Oncology of the Timişoara Municipal Hospital, received different amounts of money from 10 patients or their relatives under treatment or undergoing surgical interventions in the clinic, without being entitled to receive an additional amount of money compared to that paid to the hospital unit by the National Health Insurance House.
Regarding the second doctor, the prosecutors say that between April 19, 2022 and July 23, 2024, he received different amounts of money from nine patients or their relatives who were under treatment or undergoing surgical interventions in the Department of General Surgery 2 and Oncology within the Timişoara Municipal Hospital.
The third surgeon in the same clinic is accused of receiving different amounts of money from nine patients or their relatives between May 23, 2022 and July 8, 2024.
A fourth doctor is accused that, between May 25, 2022 and June 18, 2024, he received money from seven patients or their relatives who were under treatment or underwent surgical interventions in the Department of General Surgery 2 and Oncology of the Timişoara Municipal Hospital.

The fifth doctor under investigation in this case received various sums of money from four patients or their relatives between April 15 and July 23, 2024, while the sixth doctor is accused of receiving an envelope containing 100 lei from a patient’s relative on May 29, 2024, according to prosecutors.

A nurse from the General Surgery 2 – Oncology Clinic, also under investigation in the same case, is accused of receiving various sums of money from six patients or their relatives between July 19, 2022, and July 16, 2024.

The Prosecutor’s Office made this announcement after nine searches took place on Wednesday at Timișoara Municipal Hospital and the homes of several medical staff. A doctor was detained by officers from the General Anti-Corruption Directorate after being caught red-handed with €1,000, which he could not account for.

According to the website of Timișoara Emergency Clinical Municipal Hospital, the General Surgery II – Oncology Clinic has 11 general surgery doctors, including 5 primary doctors and 6 specialist doctors.

The former head of the department already convicted for taking money from patients

This ward of oncological surgery is not targeted for the first time by prosecutors. In May 2022, the head of the department, Octavian Mazilu, one of the best-known doctors in Timisoara and a former manager at the Municipal Hospital, was arrested by the police and prosecutors for taking bribes.

In 2023, Mazilu was sentenced by the Timis Court, in the first instance, to 3 years of suspended prison and 70 days of community service, for taking bribes in a continuous form. From July 1, 2023, the doctor was appointed interim medical director at the County Hospital in Drobeta Turnu Severin and also works in a private clinic in Mehedinţi.

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