Two entrepreneurs operating in the sector of the distribution of medical devices for multinationals, a commercial agent and the head of Cardiac Surgery of the Chieti hospital, Professor Gabriele Di Giammarco, already banned as part of another investigation, were arrested at today by the Guardia di Finanza of Chieti as part of an investigation by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Chieti for fraud in the supply and procurement of heart prostheses and other medical devices by the ASL of Chieti on behalf of Cardiac Surgery.
The various accusations range from corruption to auction disruption, from forgery to manslaughter.
Provision of disqualification for 12 months against a doctor from Padua and a doctor from Cardiac Surgery of Chieti.
A search carried out against a manager of the Theatine Asl.
The investigation activities of the Guardia di Finanza of Chieti, which lasted about a year, concern illegal conduct in the procurement procedures of medical materials and devices used by the Cardiac Surgery Unit (Uoc) of the SS.
Annunziata of Chieti.
The anomalous and disproportionate consumption of heart prostheses and other medical devices was ascertained which were procured by the ASL outside of any public procedure, at higher prices than other health companies, and which were often left to expire or squandered to make rise the volume of purchases and therefore the earnings of suppliers.
The investigations made it possible to document the existence of a complex phenomenon of systemic corruption put in place by the head of that department since 2011. This practice, according to the investigators, was further favored by the inertia of the governance of ASL Chieti which, from 2009 to 2019, it has never completed any public tender for the purchase of medical devices for the Cardiac Surgery Unit.
Only in 2019 the procedure for carrying out a public tender worth over 3 million was prepared and authorized, during which illegal conduct was further ascertained by the same primary.
In order to consolidate the evidential framework, the investigators know, a complex accounting-administrative examination was necessary at the ASL 2 of Chieti, with the active contribution of the current director general, who highlighted how the heart prostheses under investigation not only were they the most used device between 2012 and 2019, but also the most expensive ones for the public company for an amount exceeding one and a half million euros, despite the fact that similar types of valves at lower costs and included in the pre-existing one are on the market 2009 call for tenders.