In the trial concerning corruption at the Szczecin-Zdunowo hospital, 30 individuals have been indicted. Over more than a dozen years, as a result of organized criminal activity conducted through a foundation operating at the hospital, more than PLN 2.3 million was collected from patients. However, the “originator and initiator of this method of collecting payments from patients”, Tomasz Grodzki, has not appeared in the dock. This was prevented by his colleagues from Civic Platform (KO), who, after unlawfully taking control of the prosecution service, ordered the withdrawal from the Senate of the motion to lift Grodzki’s immunity.
The trial concerning corruption at the Szczecin-Zdunowo hospital, where Tomasz Grodzki served first as head of department and later as director, is slowly nearing its conclusion.
So far, 260 out of 280 planned witnesses have been heard. Last week, during a hearing before the District Court in Szczecin, 67-year-old Kazimiera L. from Myślibórz testified as a witness. She lives on a disability pension and was a patient of Dr. Krzysztof K., a subordinate of Tomasz Grodzki. She testified in court that she made a payment of PLN 10,000 to the Transplantology Aid Foundation. “I wanted to get into the clinic faster for the procedure. I knew that if I paid, it would happen – that’s what I thought”, the pensioner explained.
A bribe for time
Kazimiera L. first scheduled an appointment at Dr. Krzysztof K.’s private practice. “I learned about the Foundation from the doctor. He suggested during the visit that if I paid some money, I would be admitted faster. He didn’t force me to do anything, but I decided of my own free will that I would pay”, she said.
Ms. Kazimiera L. added that she did not make the decision immediately due to a lack of financial means. “I had to think about who I could borrow such an amount from, I had to talk to my husband about whether I could gather that much. I decided I would pay, even though it was a huge amount for me, because my pension is 1,050 złoty. I had to borrow the money, and then my husband paid it at the post office into the Foundation’s account. I had such unbearable hip pain that I would have given all my money just to be operated on as soon as possible”, she explained.
As Ms. Kazimiera testified, under normal circumstances she would have had to wait three years for surgery. After making the payment to the Transplantology Aid Foundation, this time was reduced to just about two weeks.
There were dozens of similar testimonies heard by the District Court in Szczecin from patients. The pattern was always the same: a visit to a private practice, a suggestion from the doctor to make a payment to the Foundation to speed up the operation. And each time, it worked.
Corruption on a massive scale
The trial currently underway before the District Court in Szczecin is the result of an investigation launched by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Szczecin at the end of 2019. In its initial phase, the proceedings concerned the acceptance of bribes from patients by Tomasz Grodzki. However, as the name of the Foundation increasingly appeared in the accounts of victims, officers of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau searched its premises and secured documentation. It turned out that the Transplantology Aid Foundation, operating at the hospital managed by Grodzki, served as a front for large-scale criminal activity. Therefore, a separate investigation focusing solely on the Foundation was initiated, alongside the earlier one concerning Tomasz Grodzki. This investigation concluded with an indictment covering 30 individuals, including three former doctors from the hospital managed by Grodzki who were involved in the Foundation.
The investigators’ findings confirmed that the corrupt scheme operated between 2008 and 2019 and concerned surgical treatment of obesity (so-called bariatric procedures). During this period, payments were collected from 217 patients for the benefit of the Transplantology Aid Foundation, totaling over PLN 2.3 million.
Grodzki – the initiator
According to findings by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Szczecin, the “originator and initiator of the above-described method of collecting payments from so-called bariatric patients was Tomasz Grodzki, then director of the Prof. Alfred Sokołowski Specialist Hospital in Szczecin-Zdunowo, as well as the founder of the Transplantology Aid Foundation, who effectively made decisions within this entity”. The statement from the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Szczecin reads:
“Around 2005, when surgeon Krzysztof K. signaled to Tomasz G. the need to perform bariatric procedures at the hospital, he was informed that this would only be possible on the condition of obtaining financial benefits from patients. During subsequent discussions, Tomasz G. indicated the entity that was to receive the payments – the Transplantology Aid Foundation – and set the payment amount at PLN 10,000. He then instructed Krzysztof K. to demand from patients the payment of the amount determined by Tomasz G. as necessary to perform the bariatric procedure”.
Although 30 individuals have been indicted in this case, Tomasz Grodzki is not among the defendants in the trial before the District Court in Szczecin. During the investigation, a motion was submitted to the Senate to consent to holding him criminally liable. However, after the prosecution service was unlawfully taken over by figures associated with the December 13 coalition, one of the first decisions of the new head of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Szczecin was to withdraw the motion to lift Grodzki’s immunity. As a result, to date, the politician has not faced trial for any of the corruption offenses alleged by investigators.
A similar situation occurred four years ago, when prosecutors sought to lift Grodzki’s immunity over individual bribe-taking from patients – this was the initial thread of the investigation into corruption at the Szczecin-Zdunowo hospital. At that time, senators from Civic Platform (PO), the Polish People’s Party (PSL), and post-communist members of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) refused to agree, in a vote, to holding the “ordinary bribe-taker” criminally accountable.