NOVA investigation: More revelations about abuse at Velingrad hospital (part II)



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New actions and more revelations about abuse at Velingrad hospital. Two weeks ago we showed you how to buy a hospital without having an illness and how to place fictitious patients in a hospital. We have shown you how the unprecedented scheme works, even at a time when the police and prosecutors are conducting an investigation against the manager, Dr. Zheko Chesmedjiev, for depleting the Health Insurance Fund through false certificates. Following our investigation, the Anti-Corruption Commission also established a conflict of interest with respect to Dr. Chesmedjiev. How far did the researchers go?

We have already shown you the certificates and certificates of completed professional qualification courses of Dr. Zheko Chesmedjiev, manager of Velingrad municipal hospital and two other doctors, Dr. Mustafa Farouk and Dr. Ivanka Ruseva.

MU-Plovdiv and MU-Sofia did not find such certificates. Dr. Mustafa Farouk categorically denied having attended a 15-day course. Dr. Ivanka Ruseva also denied it. It should be mentioned that in 2019, when the certificate was issued, he was 76 years old.

NOVA Research: How to buy a hospital and how to locate fictitious patients?

Dr. Ivanka Ruseva has worked as a pediatrician at the hospital for several years, but due to health problems, she was often absent from work.

“I did not know at all. At least let me know. Courses are taken to improve their specialty in order to gain experience. I did not know at all that this was for money and based on that money it was received,” explained Dr. Ivanka Ruseva.

According to the researchers, the money was obtained through various clinical channels to drain the NHIF. According to our information, only for 2017 the certificates of Dr. Zheko Chesmedjiev have been used by the Health Insurance Fund for more than 50 thousand BGN, and with the certificates of Dr. Ruseva and Dr. Farouk the money received through the clinical pathways of the Health Insurance Fund is 223 thousand BGN. .

In the first part of our investigation, we showed you how, in addition to false certificates, the hospital absorbs money from the Health Insurance Fund and through false hospital records. The scheme is simple and anyone who wishes can be admitted to the hospital on paper and receive sick leave easily, quickly and inexpensively. Only for 50 leva and with a proxy we got sick leave. An action by the Economic Police in Pazardzhik followed and Dr. Osman Mustafa was arrested.

It turned out that according to police documents and data, our surrogate person was examined and blood tests were taken from the head of the laboratory, Dr. Gergana Baltadjieva, who replaces the hospital manager, Dr. Zheko Chesmedjiev, who is on leave. . And so this fictitious patient is again at the expense of the Health Insurance Fund. That is why a new action by the police together with the Regional Health Insurance Fund followed the incident.

It became clear that the manager of the hospital in Velingrad, Dr. Zheko Chesmedjiev, received two salaries, from the hospital and from the Medical Center-2017 Ltd.

They established a conflict of interest with the director of MBAL – Velingrad

This was stated by the Anticorruption Commission. From there they explain that Dr. Zheko Chesmedjiev has been a manager of MHAT-Velingrad since 2015. Apart from that, he also worked at the EOOD “Velingrad Medical Center 2017” EOOD and provided specialized medical care as an orthopedist-traumatologist.

According to the Anti-Corruption Commission, there is a conflict of interest with regard to Dr. Zheko Chesmedjiev, because in addition to being the manager of Velingrad Hospital, he also practices medicine, for which he receives fees in another company. And that’s not all. According to our information, in order for the 2017 Velingrad Medical Center to exist, from where Dr. Chesmedjiev received the additional fees, he rented a premises owned by the hospital. He had signed contracts with the Medical Center in 2018 and 2019, and during this period he received more than BGN 21,000 in remuneration. This contract was concluded in 2020 and is valid from January 2. The municipality of Velingrad and the local parliament were also aware of this activity.

And that’s not all: according to our sources, Dr. Zheko Chesmedjiev has drawn up two minutes of the State Financial Control Agency (PFIA) in which he states that as manager of Velingrad Hospital he has not carried out public procurement procedures for the supply of medicines worth more than 110 thousand BGN and for the delivery of food for hospital nutrition worth more than 30 thousand BGN. These data are accompanied by a lack of control over deliveries, as Dr. Chesmedjiev has not designated a person to control them. According to our sources, he himself affirms that this is what the nurse heads of the wards do. However, nurses can monitor the number of deliveries, but cannot control prices and whether they are inflated. Is it about homelessness on the part of Dr. Chesmedjiev? This will be decided by the researchers.

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