Health: No medical examinations in hospitals without identity cards

Health Ministry sent an instruction to all hospitals, health centres and clinics dressing the need to verify identity cards before any medical examinations, official sources from the Health Ministry told Echorouk.

“The measure that wax taken aims to eliminate the phenomenon of counterfeiting medical certificates that has noticed recently a significant rise, according to a report that was received by the Health Minister, Abdelmalek Boudiaf, on this phenomenon that has become a business that is used in spreading allegations and pressurising citizens, and exploited for bribery and as a means to escape from judicial punishment”, Echorouk sources added.

“The report shows that the phenomenon of counterfeiting medical certificates reached a record number in courts, as Algerian courts counted over 536 cases of counterfeiting medical certificates in 2013 for people who pretend being crazy to escape punishment, and 1265 cases of physical assault and beating that contain forged medical certificates, as investigations found that they were sold at large sums of money that reach 10.000 ZDZ”.

Forged medical certificates are also used in misleading services of social insurance, which said that 88% of the illness holidays were just a cover to evade from jobs.

Services of social insurance discovered that some workers who benefited from illness holidays are not present in their houses, and that they traveled abroad for tourism.