Last week another part of the fraud case was launched at Osakidetza’s 2016-2017 OPE. In this new phase, 24 witnesses are summoned to testify before the judge, at the request of the LAB union. Several persons who signed up to participate in the competitions and participated in the organizational activities of the examination will be questioned. For the time being, it is not ruled out that some witnesses should end up in the dock.

LAB has asked the judge to charge members of Osakidetza’s management at the time, such as the one who was Health Advisor to the Basque Government between 2012 and 2019, Jon Darpón, or the former CEO of Osakidetza Maria Jesús Múgica. Last Wednesday, the ESK union made a new request for the investigation of three OPE physicians of the anesthesiologist specialty, in order to determine whether they were beneficiaries of the leaks.

The union has relied on witness testimonies: “After the statements, ESK reaffirms its view that they were beneficiaries of the leaks, although they refuse to have received the examination before.” In the opinion of the union, the note obtained by these examiners should be taken into account and the review of the notary record submitted to the judge has been requested, since it contains the names of these students: “We believe that they have been the beneficiaries of this network of clientelism, who through their actions have managed to maintain such a network.”

State of doctors

On September 1, LAB representatives attended the courts in Vitoria-Gasteiz, where they reported on the situation of the doctors who registered in the study: “Among Osakidetza’s staff, the longest time is between doctors. Those who are going to compete know that the key is owned by the head of the service, so on many occasions they have no more to submit to them.” LAB has explained that, therefore, doctors are the main victims of the situation.

The testimony of witnesses who have testified at the National Hearing will be resumed this Thursday. In total, sixteen will speak until Monday.