The State Defense Council (CDE) filed a lawsuit against a surgeon who handed out false medical licenses in overwhelming numbers. According to the document, there were days when the accused issued 75 licenses.
The complaint, sponsored by the prosecutor Ruth López and presented before the 8th Guarantee Court of Santiago, points to the Colombian doctor Hugo Alberto Berástegui Soto for his “responsibility in the commission of the consummated and repeated crimes of granting false medical licenses” and “ fraudulent obtaining of inappropriate benefits”.
In turn, legal action is also directed against all those who are responsible for committing these crimes as perpetrators, accomplices or accessories.
In the complaint filed by the CDE, to which BioBioChile had access, it is detailed that between November 2021 and March 2022, the doctor issued from abroad 4,539 medical licenses to beneficiaries of the National Health Fund.
Said amount makes him one of the professionals who has issued the largest number of licenses, “beyond all the average ranges that exist in the country.”
The issues of the disputed licenses were registered while Berástegui was abroad, since in January 2021 he left Chile to move to Colombia.
One license every 14 minutes
In December of last year, Berástegui issued a total of 1,084 medical licenses. This is a figure that is clearly questionable, since if he had worked every day of that month, eight hours a day, he would have issued -on average- 35 daily licenses.
In other words, that means he delivered one license every 14 minuteswhich obviously means insufficient time to carry out a correct review and diagnosis of patients.
It should be noted that the 1,084 licenses issued by the doctor in December are very striking, especially if we consider that in the last year, the average number of annual licenses issued by doctors in the country fluctuates around 140.
“It is especially noteworthy that the medical professional, on December 27, 2021 and November 22, 2021, issued the high number of 77 and 75 licenses, respectively,” can be read in the letter.
“The foregoing is striking not only because of the quantity, but also because before issuing these licenses, each patient should have been treated and evaluated, determining that each of the people treated on those days required rest,” he adds.
This means that on December 27 it issued one license every 6.2 minutes, while on November 22 it issued one every 6.4 minutes.
Presumed sale of licenses
The aforementioned facts make the CDE presume that the licenses do not account for medical care as provided by the regulations; that medical licenses “falsely certify health states that do not correspond to reality regarding different people.”
In addition, the complaint states that this could involve the sale of medical licenses “through different people who requested the consultation of the defendant, with the sole purpose of using them and presenting them to obtain the work incapacity subsidy.”
BioBioChile tried to contact Hugo Alberto Berástegui Soto to obtain a version of the events, without receiving a response.
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