Doctor returns to hospital despite arrest over bribe
A doctor who was arrested after accepting an under-the-table payment from a patient returned to work at Evangelismos Hospital in Athens Thursday as a disciplinary board had not been able to meet to decide his fate within the period set by a recent law passed by the previous government.
“The doctor’s return to duties was an obligation because of the current legislation and does not mean that he has been declared innocent,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.
The law in question was drawn up earlier this year by Giorgos Katrougalos when he was administrative reform minister. It limits the offenses for which civil servants can be automatically suspended.
“From the first moment we warned Mr Katrougalos that his dangerous experiments would bring back a sense of lawlessness in the public administration and that freezing automatic suspensions would be the equivalent of turning a blind eye to corruption,” said New Democracy’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was Katrougalos’s predecessor.
