The plot goes like this: In a prestigious private clinic an unscrupulous money grabbing boss discovers that the more operations that take place, the more money can be made. He hatches his evil little scheme.
This person, so vile and despicable, orders his medical staff to stop at nothing and to ‘operate’ and over- operate as much they can.
Fuelled by the offer of performance related pay linked directly to the number of operations performed, the medical team raise their personal incomes by carrying out every overly complex surgical intervention imaginable.
One day, an unsuspecting old woman enters this house of healing to have a single nodule removed from her breast, and comes out after an ‘operation’ with her complete breast missing. She wails in desperation.
Another unsuspecting victim enters horror hospital with pneumonia, and as part of the ‘treatment’ has a lung removed by the avaricious theatre team.
One week, a kindly, but frail, little old lady is admitted for some more ‘care’ by the monster doctors, and is subjected to three full scale operations over a period of seven months. The strain of all these operations results in the untimely death of the little old lady, but the doctors bonuses swell. They drive away from the carnage they are creating in shiny new BMWs and Mercedes’.
The ‘interventions’ continue apace, leading to a further four people losing their lives to the doctors of death. But, the scalpel wielding doctors continue to cut away, knowing that each time they exaggerate a little, their pay packets will grow proportionately. It is a macabre form of ‘overtime’. The more complex the intervention, the higher the bonus, and the closer the apartment in Monte Carlo becomes.
All the time, the head of the clinic, Mr Ghoul continues to egg his cutting-edge medics on, uttering, in his icily clinical and raucous tones, “More operations, more pay, my little ones.”.
One day though, in a high tech twist, one of the wacky quacks cracks, and he sends a text message to another of the D-team (‘d’ is for death), claiming that the strain of falsifying medical records and performing exaggerated surgical interventions was becoming too much for him. He knows his evil ways will be found out – those who live by the sword, often die by it, comments one of the police officers who has been involved in tapping the phones. The police are called in after the elderly father of a police officer went into the clinic for the removal of an ingrowing toenail, and came out in a coffin, after being subjected to a 24 hour triple bypass, with lung transplant, just for good money making measure.
I could go on, and bring this horrific little film to a blood curdling conclusion. How about an ending in which the death docs are just about to tuck in to one of the police officers who they caught sniffing around, when our heroes burst in, and, amidst a shower of scalpels, manage to save their colleague and shoot their way out of horror hospital? The heroes then throw themselves through a plate glass window, seconds before the whole building is demolished in an explosion set off by the clinic administrator to cover his tracks.
Bang. The end.
There, what do you think? A potentially good idea for a horror flick?
Possibly, but the really scary thing is that this ‘plot’ is based, pretty closely, on a series of real-life goings on at the Santa Rita clinic here in Milan. Fourteen quacks have ended up in handcuffs, including the administrator, as a result of their little ‘operations for income generation’ fiddle.
The motive? Money. Nothing more, nothing less.
Italy’s money motivated doctors have been in the news quite a few times recently – see my ‘A complex Complex‘ and ‘Blind Cheek‘ posts for a little more evidence.
By the way, if you are not feeling too good, I can recommend the perfect place for treatment. You won’t feel a thing, I promise you. Cue: Evil laugh.
AlexR says
Hi Marco,
“I believe this type of behaviour is not uncommon worldwide; it ends up as a scandal in Italy, and remains a secret elsewhere.”
– Yes, this is true – lots of ‘superbug’ problems in the UK, and it was a standing joke in the UK that you went in to a National Health Service hospital for an operation on an ingrowing toenail and came out minus a leg!
I have not heard of similar problems with private clinics though – but maybe they just cover things up better…
“As patients, we now have the power of the internet to challenge our doctors on each and every consultation, and we should use it more often.”
You are more sophisticated than most – I have used the www in this way, but I wonder how many other do, and I’m not so sure that there is masses of info on this subject in Italian – which makes things more difficult for Italians.
“After all, doctors are also in the business of making money and there is no reason to believe every word they say.”
True, but you would expect doctors to act rather more ethically than a vacuum cleaner salesman, at least, I would.
Interesting points, thanks for the comments,
Alex
Marco Italy says
I have several friends who are doctors in Switzerland and I believe this type of behaviour is not uncommon worldwide; it ends up as a scandal in Italy, and remains a secret elsewhere.
As patients, we now have the power of the internet to challenge our doctors on each and every consultation, and we should use it more often. Useless operations can be avoided if patients are knowledgeable enough to discuss their diseases with their doctors.
When a sales rep knocks at our door and wants to sell us a useless vacuum cleaner at 1,000 Euros, we no longer believe every word he says, because we read enough news stories and consumer magazines. We should be prepared in the same way when we consult our doctor. After all, doctors are also in the business of making money and there is no reason to believe every word they say.
Joe T. says
Believe it or not, I saw a movie with a similar plot… it was not really a horror movie but more of a crime mystery, and took place in London… I am trying to remember the name. A French actress played a young Turkish immigrant living illegally in London. She got caught up in some kind of scheme where people were being killed at a hospital, but thats all I can remember of the movie. It was a good film, but most of it slips my mind now… Funny how drink will do that!
AlexR says
Thanks Andy! 🙂
Andy says
Nice take on it, Alex.