Fake certificates for time off work during lockdown, 41 doctors under investigation

They illegitimately abstained from work during the first lockdown through false sickness certificates. The soldiers of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza of Catanzaro, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, by the Deputy Giulia Pantano and by the Substitute Graziella Viscomi, have carried out the preventive seizure order for over 46 thousand euros, issued by the Gip, against of 13 doctors of the emergency service 118 of the Provincial Health Authority of Catanzaro. Specifically, the manager of the 118 Service had promptly reported to the investigators that numerous doctors, in conjunction with the beginning of the period of spread of the Covid19 virus on the national territory (March 2020), were simultaneously absent due to illness, with inevitable repercussions on the efficiency of the first aid activity. The subsequent investigations by the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Catanzaro – Gruppo Tutela Spesa Pubblica, carried out through the seizure of the cell phones of the suspects and the examination of the conversations that took place on the whatsapp platform, made it possible to ascertain that the pathologies attested in the certificates produced at Company were completely non-existent and that numerous compliant doctors had lent themselves to diagnose them to their colleagues without any visit but only following a telephone request.More in particular, a first large group of doctors agreed to give rise to a genuine retaliation to the damages of the ASP following the suspension and simultaneous recovery of a special indemnity, which would have been illegally recognized for years even in correspondence with the days of vacation. The aforementioned 118 operators have created a special group of whatsapp, where they exchanged messages that led to protest, hoping that the inefficiencies caused by their action could lead to a restoration of the indemnity. Some doctors have deliberately decided to take time off from work for fear of contracting the Covid-19 virus, or to transmit it to their relatives, thus evading their duties in the first period of maximum spread of the pandemic. he also continued to exercise his private professional activity. 41 doctors are currently under investigation for fraud and / or false ideology committed by public officials in public documents. In light of the investigative findings collected by the financiers, the Gip of Catanzaro, accepting the requests made by the Prosecutor’s Office, ordered the preventive seizure, aimed at the mandatory confiscation, even for equivalent, of the financial resources of 13 of the suspects for over 46 thousand euros.