Major shock at Balıklı Rum Hospital: Prescription scandal

The Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has announced that an operation was conducted due to suspicions of corruption led by a doctor working in the Child Psychiatry department of Balıklı Rum Hospital. 

The statement issued by the Prosecutor's Office included the following:

"Regarding the allegation that, between 2017 and 2021, under the leadership of a doctor working in the Balıklı Rum Hospital Child Psychiatry department, fake prescriptions—including some red and green prescription drugs—were generated and billed to the Social Security Institution by showing patients whose personal data had been obtained as if they had been examined, without registering them in the hospital and institutional Medula system;

Within the scope of the investigation conducted by our Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, search, arrest, and detention warrants were issued on 11.05.2025 for Prof. Dr. A.E., medical secretary N.O., pharmacist Y.E., pharmacist A.H., pharmacy employee R.Ç., and pharmaceutical representatives C.K. and E.Ç. on charges of 'Chain-linked Official Document Forgery by a Public Official,' 'Fraud to the Detriment of Public Institutions and Organizations,' and 'Unlawful Disclosure and Seizure of Data.'

It has been determined that, although patient entry could not be made due to the Social Security Institution not providing authorization, tens of thousands of irregular protocol-numbered red prescriptions were issued for patients who had never visited the hospital and had not been examined in the child psychiatry department, by using the records of patients who were registered elsewhere or by using the same patient records for other patients in the doctor's own office without their consent. These prescriptions were then used to carry out billing transactions to the SGK by hospitals and pharmacies. It has been understood that the obtained drugs were attempted to be taken illegally to individuals or countries outside of Turkey—in the sense of street dealers selling narcotics—following the criminal complaint by the Social Security Institution and as a result of intelligence information, and that some of the pills found in the over 112 million boxes of red-prescription drugs with narcotic effects, which were not in the usage records, were sold to foreign nationals at specific prices for their potential narcotic-effect chemicals, thereby obtaining financial gain.

Respectfully announced to the public."

News Source: 12punto