Almost 84 percent of healthcare workers believe that corruption is partially or very widespread in the sector in which they work, but only 14 percent of them admit that they have been personally involved in or witnessed a corrupt act in their institution. Healthcare workers are aware of the presence of corruption, but most of them accept it as a normalized phenomenon and do not report it, showed a survey by the Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women (ESE), conducted as part of the “Stronger System for Fairer Protection: Reducing Corruption in Healthcare” project.
Over 74 percent of respondents who had experience with corruption said that the most common form of corruption is directly receiving money from patients or their loved ones. This is followed by receiving gifts, referring for a private examination, recommending the purchase of a specific medicine and charging for a service that should be free in public healthcare. Corruption is most often requested or offered for a faster appointment with a specialist or specific medical service, admission to a specific doctor and obtaining a hospital bed or surgery without waiting for months.
“Research shows that corruption in healthcare should not be seen only as an individual case of bribery. It is a broader systemic problem, which is related to access to healthcare services, power relations in institutions, the safety of patients and healthcare workers, but also trust in the system,” says BorjanPavlovski, coordinator for public health and women’s health at the ESE Association.
Of particular concern is the presence of informal payments for gynecological and obstetric healthcare services. Bribery is most often, or in more than 50 percent of cases, used to “buy” a cesarean section without a medical indication, as well as the choice of a specific gynecologist or delivery team.
