Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon
The doctor will have taken advantage of the Integrated Surgery Registration Management System (Sigic), which serves to reduce waiting lists through financial incentives for doctors.
A dermatologist at the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon is under investigation after receiving About 400 thousand euros in just 10 days Supplementary work for 2024, according to an TVI investigation.
On the most lucrative day, Miguel Alpalhão came to earn more than 51 thousand euros Through the Integrated Surgery Management System (Sigic), the mechanism created to reduce waiting lists in public hospitals.
The surgeries performed were, mostly, simple procedures such as the removal of cyst 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 seen.
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 procedures, directly controlled the entry and validation of interventions, raising doubts about the honesty of the process.
The possible conflict of interest was even higher in late 2023, when the doctor used the sign to perform surgeries to their own parents, advances to. Carlos Martins, president of the Santa Maria hospital, was “surprised” with the case, which he classified as “inadmissible“, Immediately suspending surgeries over the weekend and ordering an internal audit.
The General Inspection of Health Activities (IGAS) and the Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS) were called to intervene, although ACSS said it has no competence to audit cases like this.
Speaking to TVI, journalist Cátia Esteves, who conducted the investigation, says that this case is not isolated and there are reports of similar situations in other hospitals. “No one has ever looked at this, No one has ever looked at the computer system itselfwhich is fragile and allows for errors of this type. And another thing that is coding, which is a very specific area of medicine, and that’s where I detected some errors: for example, the simple difference between small surgery and outpatient surgery, ”he explains.
The prosecutor has already requested information from the hospital and is analyzing the case. Meanwhile, the hospital promises to reinforce control mechanisms and improperly paid money. “Who received improperly will have to return the money”, Guaranteed Carlos Martins.
