Commission Against Corruption, Macao SAR

The CCAC has revealed a case of alleged forgery of technical mark and fraud involving a senior nurse of the Hospital Centre S. Januario who is responsible for out-patient service. The nurse, surnamed Cheong, is suspected to have, repeatedly and for a long time, made use of the loopholes of the system of overtime declaration and doctor's trust in attempt to defraud overtime pay that s/he did not deserve. After the doctor and the last patient have left the consulting room, the nurse did not switch off the medical record on computer in order to deliberately extend the time record of consultation as if s/he was still working. The CCAC referred the case to the Public Prosecutions Office today (25^th July).

 After in-depth investigation, the CCAC discovered that at least during the period of January 2011 to May 2012, the suspect allegedly made use of the mechanism of the hospital for the calculation of the compensation of overtime work (it is calculated by using the time registered by the computer of the last patient completed the consultation at the out-patient department with an additional 20 minutes for finishing off). It is suspected that the nurse, after the doctor has finished the out-patient duties and left the consulting room, deliberately kept the patient's medical record open on the computer in order to delay the time record of the patient completing the consultation, so as to obtain additional monetary compensation as the remuneration for overtime. With full knowledge that it is a violation of code of practice, the suspect has committed the fraud repeatedly for a long time. The CCAC also found that on some of the days of the stated period, the medical records of patients had even been left open for over four hours, close to the length of time of daily service of relevant doctors at the out-patient department. There are also computer records showing that some patients were still "under diagnosis or treatment" at the time when in fact they had left Macao already.

In the course of investigation, the suspect admitted having committed the said fraudulent acts and deceived the Macao SAR Government.

The CCAC will continue to investigate whether other public servants have involved in covering up the illicit acts or committed similar offences. It has also informed the Health Bureau of the case and requested it to take immediate action to eliminate factors that may cause corruption.