Why have the city's authorities ignored the glaring problems and obvious violations of the law discovered at Kyiv's leading municipal clinic? Perhaps officials are completely unconcerned about the health of the average Kyiv resident? Or are these same officials directly involved in the corruption schemes operating at the ill-fated clinic?
We are talking about the once leading ophthalmological clinic of the capital, the Center for Eye Microsurgery (CMHG).
While regulatory and law enforcement agencies, along with some of the clinic's staff, are attempting to sort out the corruption "legacy" left by the clinic's former head physician, Sergei Rykov, and bring to justice all of the deputies implicated in it, the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Health, led by its director, Alla Areshkovich, is blatantly ignoring the current situation and all the new instances of corruption and violations uncovered during the investigation.
As a reminder, this medical facility has regularly been the epicenter of scandals and sensational revelations in recent months. At the end of last year, following an audit of the clinic's financial and economic activities by the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Internal Financial Control and Audit, Serhiy Rykov was dismissed. During his 27 years as chief physician, he managed to create a powerful and foolproof scheme for criminal profiteering at the expense of patients and the state.
This scheme is quite traditional for Ukrainian medicine. Similar schemes are also common in Kyiv's medical institutions. As Mykhailo Radutsky, deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration for Medicine, noted in comments to the Vesti newspaper, "Some clinic directors have created 'pocket' insurance companies or charitable foundations—this is semi-concealed corruption."
Initially, the money paid by "pseudo-insured" patients for the medications and materials they purchased was sent not to the clinic's special accounts, but to the accounts of a shell company (usually an insurance company or a charitable foundation). In the case of the Central Medical and Chemistry Clinic, payments were sent to a certain insurance company, Satis (98% of all patients were treated through this company), for which the clinic's management created a monopoly: either pay at the Satis cash desk or find another clinic.
Sometimes patients expressed outrage and demanded an explanation—why, when paying through Satis, they had to pay three times more for the prescribed surgical kit and hospitalization than the price lists of the most expensive private clinics, and why they had to pay in cash, even though most clinics had long since accepted cashless payments. These patients were often simply denied treatment.
According to the audit, for the first 8 months of 2014, "thanks" to the activities of the company "Satis", the budget of the city of Kyiv lost no less than 38 million hryvnia.
Interestingly, when "insurance" was purchased through Satis, the beneficiaries were not only the Central Medical and Chemistry Clinic, but also third-party legal entities. The clinic itself received no more than 30% of the insured amount, and the remaining funds paid by the patient were distributed among certain companies—Epiport LLC, Apteka24 LLC, and Pharmcenter LLC—which had no connection whatsoever with the treatment of patients.
Another way to "make money" was by falsifying records of both paid and unpaid patients. As a result, it turned out that the clinic was treating almost all of its patients for FREE. Thus, city budget funds allocated for the clinic's maintenance also flowed into the management's pockets. In the case of the Central Medical and Chemistry Hospital, it was discovered that the clinic had underreported the number of paid patients by almost half in its reporting. Furthermore, the audit was twice blocked by court decisions.
As a result of these machinations, the Solomensky District Office and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kyiv initiated several criminal cases, in particular under Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine "Fraud" and Article 364 "Abuse of power or official position."
However, this didn't stop the former head physician from peacefully resigning last December, citing "mutual consent," without facing the punishment he deserved. Upon leaving the clinic, Rykov gave full-time employment to former Deputy Minister of Health Alexander Tolstanov and other purged Ministry of Health officials.
The chief physician's position was immediately occupied by a person directly involved in the aforementioned schemes. This was Lyubov Denisyuk, head of the vascular pathology department. She was the founder of several companies that were part of the same business group as the shell company Eliport LLC, through which money from patients was siphoned off to Satis Insurance Company.
She spent the last five years on maternity leave, and on February 27, 2015, a week after the birth of her third child, she immediately assumed the position of chief physician. She shares a business relationship with Rykov, as well as family ties—the clinic knows she is his goddaughter.
Rumor has it that Denisyuk's interests in securing the position of chief physician were actively lobbied by the Kyiv City State Administration, in particular by Alla Areshkovich, head of the Department of Health, who is overly concerned with the problems of the Central Medical and Chemistry Hospital. It's difficult to say how true these rumors are—at least until law enforcement unravel this mystery. However, the conspicuous silence regarding the clinic's problems maintained by Kyiv officials suggests that things are not quite so simple. And the fate of the corrupt Rykov "dynasty," represented today by Lyubov Denisyuk, is of great interest to officials.
How else can one explain the fact that the beating of one of the clinic's ophthalmologists in the head doctor's office on March 27 of this year went unnoticed by the relevant authorities at the Kyiv City State Administration? As a reminder, one of the clinic's specialists, Ihor Moskalchuk, an ophthalmologist in the laser department, was brutally beaten right in the head doctor's office. The injuries were inflicted by Lyubov Denisyuk's personal security detail, employed by her hired security firm, Sparta (incidentally, this firm is directly connected to the "titushki" security forces, who stained their lives with the blood of the Maidan), on the direct orders of the head doctor. The official reason given for the attack was that he allegedly espouses "separatist" views toward the clinic's management and "defames" the good name of the clinic and its leaders.
In reality, as the clinic's doctors privately note, the beating of the medic was yet another act of intimidation against the staff. Former director Sergei Rykov had repeatedly resorted to similar methods, deploying so-called "titushki" (militants in camouflage) at the clinic, representing the "Hundred of Jesus Christ," the pseudonymous 8th Hundred of the Maidan Self-Defense Force.
Many doctors were unable to work under the "conditions" created by the clinic's management: the hospital lost several leading, world-renowned specialists. Renowned ophthalmologists Yuri Kondratenko, Andrey Sergienko, Andrey Ruban, and Alexey Novitsky were forced to leave the Central Medical and Chemistry Hospital. In the spring, management dismissed Svetlana Zbitneva, Natalia Petrenko, Lyudmila Sablina, Elena Verzhbitskaya, and, most recently, Natalia Torchinskaya and Hasan Farkhat for trumped-up reasons. Rykov, the official, first simply "ousted" Nikolai Sergienko, the world-renowned ophthalmologist professor and founder of the clinic, from the head of the ophthalmology department, adding a fifth position to his ranks, and now has "seized" his office as well.
The beating of Moskalchuk became public knowledge, prompting reactions from public activists, the media, and individual deputies. Only representatives of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) failed to react at all, displaying complete indifference.
Lyubov Denisyuk is on probation until the end of May, but it's already safe to say she failed this exam.
The clinic's primary doctors' union has once again issued open letters to city authorities, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Cabinet of Ministers, calling for immediate intervention and an end to the chaos at the clinic, the prosecution of corrupt officials, the cessation of the activities of various shell companies on the premises of the Central Medical and Hygienic Hospital, and the prevention of the contract being signed with Lyubov Denisyuk.
Will this call be heeded in the Kyiv City State Administration offices? Time will tell.
Such inaction by the head of the Kyiv City State Administration, his deputy, and the director of the Department of Health is criminal and falls under Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine ("Negligence of Office"). Perhaps the mayor's office has forgotten that, under Ukrainian law, they are obligated to combat and prevent corruption. And if officials fail to fulfill their duties, they should be held accountable on par with the corrupt officials who exploit the capital's healthcare system, impoverishing and ruining public hospitals.
Quail Maxim, Elite of the Country
Subscribe to our channels in Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, VC — Only new faces from the section CRYPT!