Prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Department (DNA) have carried searches at four of Bucharest's biggest hospitals on Thursday, June 9, in a criminal case related to illegal activities conducted between 2008 and 2016.

“On June 9, 2016, following legal authorizations obtained from the competent court, house searches are carried out at 13 locations in Bucharest and Ilfov county, four of which are headquarters of public institutions, the rest being homes of individuals and companies,” reads a DNA statement.

According to judicial sources cited by local Mediafax, the public institutions the DNA statement refers to are four of the largest hospitals in Bucharest, namely Fundeni Clinical Institute, Prof. Dr. Alexandru Trerstioreanu Institute of Oncology, Bagdasar Arseni Emergency Hospital, and Prof. Dr. Alexandru Obregia Psychiatric Hospital.

The damage in this case is estimated at EUR 2.6 million. The DNA statement didn't mention what were the illegal activities investigated in this case.

The anticorruption prosecutors have been investigating the public purchases carried out by local hospitals in recent years, especially after the Hexi Pharma diluted disinfectants case revealed that some hospitals may have broken the acquisition rules. Moreover, the journalistic investigation that brought the whole case into public attention also mentioned that Hexi Pharma used to pay doctors and hospital managers to have them buy the company's diluted disinfectants.

The prosecutors have also been investigating local doctors who or paid or compensated in other ways by pharmaceutical companies to prescribe cancer drugs and other types of drugs.

77 Romanian doctors allegedly bribed with holidays in India to prescribe cancer drugs

New scandal in the Romanian health sector: Psychiatrists accused of using patients as guinea pigs

Romanian Competition Council: Doctors recommend expensive drugs

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com