Doctor who won 51,000 euros on a day “in no way abounds confidence from the Portuguese”

The General Inspection of Health Activities opened an inquiry to the additional surgical activity on Monday, after the case of the dermatologist who received 51,000 euros in just one day of work at the Santa Maria Hospital.

Igas also opened an audit to the facts related to surgical activity carried out in additional production and sick classification in homogeneous diagnostic groups (GDH), at the Santa Maria Local Unit Dermatology Service, from 2021 until today, Igas in a statement to the media.

On Friday, a report from CNN Portugal revealed that Miguel Alpalhãodermatologist at Santa Maria Hospital, will have received from additional work, having one of the days used to remove benign lesions to parents.The more profitable day, the dermatologist even won More than 51 thousand euros.

Or case “in no way pans in the confidence of the Portuguese“This Monday considered the Minister of Health, ANA PAULA MARTINS.

“Until the inquiries are made, it lies on the institution, in this case the largest hospital in the country, a suspicion that in no way pans trust of the Portuguese, especially those waiting on a waiting list For having surgery or for having an appointment, ”said the minister.

At stake is the Integrated Surgery Management System for Surgery (Sigic), which allows you to have surgery outside work hours to mitigate long waiting lines in hospitals.

The surgeries performed were mostly Simple procedures like the removal of qbenign uistos and signswith an average duration of only 10 minutes. Nevertheless, they were classified as “outpatient surgeries”a category that requires the presence of anesthetist and monitoring, which, according to the television report, was not verified.

To ensure access to the extra surgery regime, the internal regulation requires that doctors Do two regular surgeries for each procedure signic. However, Miguel Alpalhão, who was also responsible for coding the procedures, controlled the input and validation directly of interventions, raising Questions about the honesty of the process.

Igas states that, last Wednesday, the chairman of the Board of Directors of the local unit of Santa Maria, Carlos Martinsinformed the general inspection of health activities on “an occurrence related to any irregular action in the dermatology service of that entity, within the scope of the surgical activity system performed in additional production”.

Considering the facts referred to by Carlos Martins, as well as the planning of IGAS activity for this year, within the scope of the Internal Control System, the IGAS Inspector General determined today INQUIRY PROCESS ESTABLISHMENT to the facts related to the surgical activity carried out in additional production and classification of patients in homogeneous diagnostic groups in the dermatology service of Hospital Santa Maria.

Also determined the establishment of “an audit process at 39 units Healthplaces and the three Portuguese Oncology Institutes, with the involvement of their internal audit services ”.

In the first phase, the audit process at 39 ULS will cover a set of ten local health units, which will be selected through the indicators of the activity performed in additional production compared to normal activity, in surgery.