At one of Kyiv's medical institutions, law enforcement officers exposed a long-running corruption scheme under which hospital managers systematically extracted money from surgeons for every surgical procedure they performed. According to the investigation, the 'protection money' was collected over several years, with payments starting from one thousand hryvnia per operation. The funds were handed over on a weekly or monthly basis, and the total amount depended on the number of procedures performed by the surgeon. The scheme was organized by the institution's medical director and two department heads.

Mechanism of pressure on doctors

The key instrument of coercion to make 'voluntary' payments was the abuse of official position. Surgeons who refused to hand over money to management were threatened with an excessive on-call schedule, the initiation of disciplinary proceedings, and, crucially under the current circumstances, the cancellation of their previously granted exemption from mobilization. The latter factor turned the corruption scheme into a tool of direct pressure on the lives and freedom of the doctors, since under martial law the loss of an exemption means the risk of being conscripted into military service. Thus, the hospital management effectively created a system of a forced 'tax' on medical practice.

Documentation and criminal charges

Operational officers of the Department of Strategic Investigations of the National Police of Ukraine, together with investigators from the capital's police department, documented multiple instances of money being transferred from surgeons to the management of the medical institution. As a result of the investigative actions, all three suspects — the medical director and the two department heads — were notified of suspicion of committing a crime under Part 3 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (receiving improper benefit by a person holding a responsible position). This classification provides for liability for the systematic receipt of bribes in large amounts.

Preventive measures

The court selected different preventive measures for the suspects. The institution's medical director was placed under nighttime house arrest for two months. Both department heads were detained for 60 days with the possibility of posting bail. The difference in the severity of the measures may indicate that the investigative authorities view the medical director's role as organizational and managerial, while the department heads performed the function of directly collecting funds from the subordinate surgeons.

Context: systemic problems in medicine and around mobilization

The exposure of this scheme is not an isolated case. Recently, the Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police detained a former People's Deputy who, for 10,000 dollars, helped citizens obtain a fake disability status in order to evade mobilization. In parallel, in Ternopil Oblast, law enforcement officers exposed the entire composition of a district hospital's medical-consultative commission: for three years, the medics had been issuing fake health certificates for sums ranging from 6 to 12 thousand dollars. The totality of these episodes points to the formation of a stable 'shadow market' for medical documents and corrupt practices, closely intertwined with the mechanisms of the mobilization system.

Contradictory data

No significant discrepancies in facts, dates, or figures were identified in the provided sources. The single version set out in the investigative materials and confirmed by the RBC-Ukraine publication is consistent across all key parameters: the amount of payments (from 1,000 hryvnia), the frequency of collection (weekly or monthly), the number of suspects (three people), and the legal qualification of the act (Part 3, Art. 368 of the Criminal Code). The only nuance worth noting is the absence in the public data of the exact name of the medical institution and the specific period during which the scheme operated (only 'for years' is stated), which may be related to the stage of the investigation and restrictions on disclosing details.