The second criminal case against oncologist Pavel Sviridov, who headed the department of the Brachytherapy Center of Clinical Hospital No. 8 in Obninsk, did not reach the court due to flaws in the investigation. Sviridov is accused of allegedly demanding a bribe from patients for providing quotas for brachytherapy, a high-tech cancer treatment paid for from the state budget.

Episodic bribes

As RT reported, the first time Sviridov was convicted in January 2019. The Obninsk City Court found the doctor guilty of receiving bribes from patients for helping to obtain quotas for free operations. The oncologist was sentenced to four years probation and a fine of 5 million rubles.

Sviridov categorically denied blame.

The doctor explained that he really asked his patients to pay extra if necessary - but only for supplies for the operation, and not for helping in obtaining subsidies, since the funds allocated by the state were not enough. All patients involved in the criminal case Sviridov at the trial confirmed his version.

“In 2010, the state began to allocate money for brachytherapy for citizens,” explained Sviridov RT. - The subsidy amounted to 486 thousand rubles, and this was usually enough. In 2015, after changes in calculation methods, the amount was halved - to 234 thousand. And this money never covered the real costs of treating a patient - only micro sources per patient cost up to half a million rubles. There was a stalemate: patients needed urgent help, but they could not officially pay extra. ”

Already after the sentencing, it became known that in the course of the judicial investigation, the UK instituted a similar case involving several more episodes of taking bribes. The doctor’s defense believes that the episodes were not included in the first case because of the desire of law enforcement officers to improve annual performance.

At the same time, during the investigation of the new case, the examination appointed by the investigator established that in almost all cases even two quotas were really not enough for the treatment of patients. Thus, Sviridov’s explanation of why he asked patients for money actually received expert confirmation.

“Our arguments were confirmed by the investigation,” says Sviridov’s lawyer Eduard Burushko, RT. - However, the UK made an unreasonable conclusion that Sviridov took money for the organization of free treatment itself, which makes no sense. The investigation again insists that the oncologist was able to single-handedly decide who should be given the quota, although in reality he had nothing to do with the allocation of quotas - we proved this in court in the first case. ”

At the end of 2019, a new criminal case was sent to the prosecutor's office for approval of the indictment, however, the supervisor returned it to the UK due to the need for additional investigative actions. What exactly were the flaws in the investigation, the prosecutor's office of the Kaluga region RT refused to comment, citing the inadmissibility of the disclosure of data from the preliminary investigation.

In the IC of Russia in the Kaluga Region, RT reported that investigative actions in the Sviridov case were resumed, and there are no grounds for ending the criminal prosecution of the oncologist.

“It is planned to re-direct the criminal case to the prosecutor,” RT explained in the regional UK.

Sviridov’s defense hopes that the case will not reach the court.

“The new business is a copy of the first. Moreover, the violations identified by the prosecutor are technical, ”Burushko says. - The supervisor did not respond to the serious violations that we spoke about in the petitions. It is possible that the case was returned for further investigation, just to slow down the referral to the court. The fact is that we filed a cassation appeal against the previous verdict to the First Cassation Court in Saratov. There have been many violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the sentence may be quashed. If this happens, the new charge will lose its meaning. ”

The fight for quotas

It is noteworthy that Sviridov, who has been under investigation since December 2016, he said, managed to achieve an increase in quotas allocated by the state for the treatment of prostate cancer using brachytherapy. According to the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, since 2020, the standard for the provision of medical care for the treatment of prostate cancer using brachytherapy is 438 thousand rubles.

“The halving of quotas that occurred in 2015 was the reason why patients had to be asked to pay as much of the treatment as possible,” Sviridov explains. - I tried to return the previous volume of financing both before the initiation of a criminal case, and after. We wrote about this to the relevant ministry, to the Federation Council and to the president. A huge number of requests were sent, and as a result, at the end of 2019, officials returned the quota size to almost the same level. Now the clinics in this regard want to return the free treatment of patients using brachytherapy again. I am called to work by various medical institutions, but I can’t accept the invitation - at least because of my recognizance not to leave. ”

Letters to the Ministry

Meanwhile, a group of patients treated with Sviridov sent an appeal to Deputy Minister of Health Vladimir Uybe and head of the FMBA of Russia Veronika Skvortsova. The authors of the letter note that today the whole country acts under the slogan “We don’t leave our own” because of the coronavirus epidemic, and they ask the Ministry of Health to protect “their” Sviridov so that he can again treat people.

“The forced attraction of patient funds by Dr. Sviridov to cover the deficit of funds necessary for the operation of the brachytherapy center due to your decisions was perceived by the law enforcement authorities as receiving bribes for assisting in issuing coupons for high-tech medical care,” the patients write. - This wording is absurd. The fact that the allocated funds were sorely lacking for treatment was confirmed by several financial examinations carried out in the criminal case, and you have confirmed this in response to official requests from patients, having doubled the funding for this type of treatment at the end of 2019, restoring order and ensuring this type of VMP to the level of 2014 ”.