Odesa Doctor Arrested for Selling Fake Medical Certificates to Avoid Mobilization

In Odesa, a family doctor set up a scheme to sell medical certificates that allowed him to avoid mobilization. The doctor in question is from the Primary Health Care Center No. 3 of the Odesa City Council.

This was reported by the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office.

According to the investigation, the outpatient clinic employee, using his connections in city hospitals, organized an illegal scheme to help conscripts who sought to avoid mobilization. In exchange for USD 600, he promised to influence medical officials to issue certificates of inpatient treatment without actual hospitalization.

These documents allowed the persons liable for military service to be referred to the Medical and Social Expert Commission (MSEC) for assignment of a disability group.

The 34-year-old doctor was detained while handing over a bribe and issuing fake medical certificates. He was served a notice of suspicion of bribery for influencing the decisions of officials (Part 2 of Article 369-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The doctor now faces up to five years in prison.

The investigation is ongoing, and law enforcement officers are identifying all participants in the criminal scheme.

In February, a neurologist of a private medical institution was exposed for bribery in Odesa.

Earlier, the State Bureau of Investigation reported exposing an organized group of doctors who helped healthy men of conscription age obtain medical documents that allowed the medical and social expert commission to declare them unfit for service.

Before that, the head of the Odesa consultative polyclinic department of one of the institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine was accused of corruption and was served with a notice of suspicion.

A doctor of a medical institution was also detained in Odesa. She is suspected of taking bribes to confirm her disability.

Ірина Глухова