‘Corruption research in Zwolle Isala hospital revolves around heart implants’

NOS News•today, 00:45

The corruption investigation into cardiologists in the Zwolle hospital Isala has to do with heart implants. NRC and the German weekly Der Spiegel write this after a joint investigation. Justice suspects that the German Biotronik has paid bribes to medical specialists.

The German Biotronik produces pacemakers and ICD boxes (subcutaneous defibrillator). In case of cardiac arrhythmias, the latter cause a shock to restore the normal heart rhythm. Most ICDs in the Netherlands are placed in the Zwolle hospital Isala.

According to NRC and Der Spiegel, the German manufacturer paid cardiologists from Isala to install the devices of their brand. Biotronik has already been discredited by bribe payments.

Last June, de Volkskrant announced that the hospital had suspended two cardiologists because, according to the justice system, they had been bribed for years by a supplier of medical products. NRC now reports that it concerns the ICDs and pacemakers, of which about 6000 are implanted annually.

According to NRC and Der Spiegel, the hospital’s cardiologists together received 3.2 million euros in benefits in recent years. That would have been done via ‘foreign entities’, without health insurers in the Netherlands having a good idea of ​​the cost differences between manufacturers of the equipment.

Medical specialist Peter Paul D. would have benefited the most from the bribes. He would have wrongly received more than a million euros.

By the way, cardiologists warned ten years ago that placing ICDs is a lucrative business because hospitals and medical specialists can earn good money from it.