“Widespread and deep-rooted malpractice”, the result of a “consolidated practice”: thus the investigating judge of Palmi, Francesca Mirabelli, talks about the story that led to the suspension, for absenteeism, of two doctors who work in the “Addiction Service” of Polistena. The two doctors, who were suspended for one year, are Rosa Marina Catalanoaged 59, and Maria Carmela Di Bartolo, of 65, both residents of Polistena. The two health workers, according to what was said in a press release from the Financial Police, «in contravention of their duties, systematically absented themselves without any valid duty reason to return to their homes or for personal needs, such as going to the supermarket or the post office ».
The sum seized from the two doctors, for the hours of work declared but never carried out, amounts to a total of almost eight thousand euros. The investigating judge Mirabelli, in the suspension order, regarding the behavior of the two doctors, speaks of «lack of sense of professional ethics and indifference towards the community in a sector as delicate as that of public health. The investigation – the judge continues – highlighted the systematic and unscrupulousness, symptomatic of habituality, of the reported conduct, evidently the expression of a widespread and deep-rooted bad practice which involves managerial level personnel, abstractly invested with greater responsibilities and obligations and even more abstractly understood as a figure of ethical reference”.