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THE INVESTIGATION. The investigations would have shown that the products - prostheses, but also plates, screws and other osteosynthesis tools - were of high quality, but in some cases they would have been purchased by circumventing the procedures, in Tuscany, in particular, circumventing the intervention of Estav, the regional body that manages the supply of goods and services for healthcare companies. In 2007, the damage suffered by the National Health System would have been around 35,000 euros. In addition to corruption, embezzlement is suspected against the pharmacist (and other doctors under investigation) for the use of drugs for purposes not related to the hospital. The investigation includes 13 other suspects, including doctors from other Italian hospitals, nurses and representatives of a second prosthesis supplier company. Three arrest warrants under house arrest were issued by the investigating judge as part of an investigation by the Florence prosecutor's office into the supply of orthopedic prostheses to the Careggi university hospital in Florence. Fourteen other people are being investigated in a state of freedom.
THE ASSUMED CRIMES. The hypotheses of crime range from corruption to embezzlement, to aggravated fraud against the national health system. From the investigations, coordinated by the prosecutor Giuseppe Nicolosi and conducted by the carabinieri of the Nas of Florence, it emerged that the choice of surgical devices would have taken place by circumventing the tender system and favoring two supplier companies, in exchange for money or otherwise. Doctors and nurses from Careggi and representatives of the companies who supply orthopedic prostheses and osteosynthesis material have ended up in the sights of the investigators. The investigations concerned Tuscany, Lazio, Umbria, Lombardy, Campania, Puglia and Sicily. As part of the same investigation, a crime also emerged relating to drug dealing, contested, together with others, by three of the suspects.
THE REACTIONS. "The regional councilor for the right to health Enrico Rossi should promptly report to the regional council on the facts that see the judiciary investigating some health workers of the Careggi hospital-university company, and also on two companies supplying orthopedic prostheses". This was stated by Alberto Magnolfi, president of the regional group of Forza Italia towards the People of Freedom, and the blue councilor Annamaria Celesti, vice president of the health commission, announcing an urgent question after the news on the investigation by the Florentine prosecutor. The question aims to assess whether the system of procedures, checks and controls on tenders for the supply of goods and services established by the Tuscany Region should not be reviewed by identifying more and better criteria of transparency and meritocracy. «Regardless of the investigation by the judiciary - Magnolfi and Celesti explain - to ascertain the responsibilities which, if ascertained, are and remain individual, the highest institutional levels that govern our Region cannot escape political responsibility not only for planning and guidelines in health, but
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