Last update - 00:00 13/02/2007
State charges senior oncologist with exploiting cancer patients
By Ran Reznik, Haaretz Correspondent
The State Prosecution filed an indictment against senior onclologist Dr. Arie Figer on Tuesday at the Tel Aviv District Court, charging him with exploiting his cancer patients.
Some of the charges in the indictment are that the Ichilov Hospital oncologist "callously took advantage of the deep distress of his patients and their families when he demanded and accepted hundreds of thousands of shekels in bribes in exchange for treatment, for referrals to clinical trials in which new life saving drugs were tested or even for leftover medications belonging to patients who had died. Dr. Figer received these bribes in envelopes that were handed to him in the hospital halls, in elevators and his office at the hospital."
Dr. Figer, 59, held the position of deputy director of the oncology department at the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. He was also the acting head of the gastroenterology service at the hospital. The indictment against him includes five incidents, four of which took place at Ichilov, and a fifth that occurred at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where Figer was employed until 2000.
Figer is charged with demanding and receiving bribes, breach of trust and exploitation of patients. During the police investigation into the matter, Figer emphatically denied the charges attributed to him and said that he had never taken any bribes from his patients. The indictment was filed Tuesday following a police investigation which was carried out in 2005, and a hearing on the matter that was held in recent weeks.
The indictment filed against Figer is one of the harshest indictments filed against any doctor in Israel, and one of the only indictments to include charges of exploiting cancer patients. Until now, most of the charges filed against doctors in Israel had been for bribery surrounding surgery, particularly heart and brain surgery.
This indictment is also the first one to charge a doctor at a public hospital with demanding payment for the inclusion of patients in clinical trials in which pharmaceutical companies waive the cost of the drugs being tested. This is also the first time that the State Prosecution is charging a doctor with taking payment for left over medications that belonged to other cancer patients who have died.
Dr. Figer is also charged with having referred his patients at Ichilov and Beilinson Hospitals to his private clinic, where their treatment would not be subsidized by the state.
Figer's secretaries would consistently misinform patients and tell them that the only available appointment at the hospital would be in several months time, whereas at Figer's private clinic they would be able to schedule an immediate appointment.
The indictment includes a list of 39 prosecution witnesses, including Professor Gabriel Barbash, the director general of Ichilov, and Professor Moshe Inbar, the director of the oncology department at the hospital.