The Palma court is judging a family doctor and an orderly accused of defrauding over 7,000 euros from IBSalut by inflating the patient schedule between January and October 2023. The prosecution is seeking five and a half years in prison for both.
The Provincial Court of Palma will host a preliminary hearing in the coming days against a 49-year-old family doctor and a 63-year-old orderly, accused of defrauding IBSalut of more than 7,000 euros. According to the public prosecutor, the scheme involved inflating the patient schedule so that she could receive bonuses for extraordinary activity.
The prosecution is demanding a sentence of five and a half years in prison, a fine of 7,200 euros, and disqualification from practicing as healthcare professionals for six years. The doctor, of Italian origin, is accused of fraud in conjunction with another charge of falsifying an official document committed by a public official. The orderly, for his part, is listed as a necessary collaborator.
The modus operandi: false data in the computer system
According to the indictment, between January and October 2023, both accused, who were in a romantic relationship, acted in concert to input false data into the computer program of the Servei de Salut de les Illes Balears. The aim was for the doctor's schedule to show a number of patients visited that was higher than the actual count.
These data were sent to the relevant services and served as the basis for calculating her salary. Thanks to this fictitious increase, the doctor was able to receive extraordinary payments for exceeding 35 patients in a regular day in some cases, and a productivity bonus for reaching 25 consultations in an extraordinary day.
Specifically, during 37 days of that period, the doctor recorded more than 35 patients as visited in a regular day, when in reality she had only exceeded that number on ten of those days. In total, 247 patients appeared as attended without actually being so.
Civil liability and background
In terms of civil liability, the prosecution requests that the doctor compensate IBSalut with 7,196 euros for the amounts received improperly. The orderly will be jointly and severally liable for 1,899 euros. Both have no prior criminal record.
The doctor worked as a temporary family doctor in several health centres in Palma. The orderly, on the other hand, was a permanent statutory employee providing services in a primary care centre in the Balearic capital. The Second Section of the Provincial Court will be responsible for judging the case.
For the residents of Palma, this case highlights the management of schedules in the city's health centres, where the care pressure is high. The trial, which does not yet have a set date, will determine whether there was a systematic fraud that exploited the loopholes in the variable remuneration system of IBSalut.
The outcome of this preliminary hearing will mark the beginning of a process that could set a precedent for the control of activity data in the Balearic public health system. Meanwhile, the accused await the resolution in freedom.
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