Illustration
Photo: CD Bank
Clinic used as 'sick leave factory'?
Five doctors, three workers at Kfar Kassem infirmary arrested on suspicion of selling medical certificates to hundreds of soldiers without examining them
Five doctors, a clinic manager and three workers at an infirmary in the town of Kfar Kassem were arrested Tuesday morning on suspicion of selling medical certificates to hundreds of IDF soldiers without examining them.
An investigation was launched into the affair following a complaint filed with the Israeli Police by the Military Police on suspicion of pretense due to the increasing number of soldier taking sick leaves, which resulted in a shortage of troops in several IDF bases.
The eight were detained following a police investigation which involved secret agents disguised as soldiers, who paid NIS 100-150 (about $26-40) for three sick notes.
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Hanoch Yitzhak, head of the agents department at the police's Central District, told Ynet that "the agents were examined by a military doctor, who ruled that they are in good health. They were then sent to the Kfar Kassem clinic.
"The agents arrived at the clinic and received sick notes, sometimes without being examined and sometimes after undergoing a superficial examination only. The agents had no medical problem which would justify the sick notes."
According to Yitzhak, during the investigation police began suspecting that the clinic was running an entire industry of fake sick notes.
"We discovered that the soldiers arrived at the clinic after its name was distributed on the internet as a place where sick notes could be received without any problem. During the investigation, we found out that soldiers who were slated to go to Gaza evaded the operation using fake sick notes. These troops included combat soldiers and soldiers serving in the Military Police."
Yitzhak added that he himself had telephoned the clinic pretending to be a soldier's father, and summoned a doctor to visit his home.
"The doctor came, held a superficial examination and gave the son a sick note. When I asked him why he was giving out the certificates so easily, the doctor said he only gave them to soldiers he knows."
Police view the clinic's conduct as extremely severe, as well as the fact that hundreds of soldiers in uniform rushed to an infirmary located in an Arab town.
