9 accused of selling intensive care beds to Covid patients in Peru

Nine people, including public hospital staff, were arrested in Peru on charges of “selling” intensive care beds to desperate coronavirus patients for 82,000 soles (around € 18,000).

The defendants – among them directors of a patient care NGO – were arrested yesterday and appeared in court today, according to police and prosecutors.

Prosecutor Reynaldo Abia told reporters that an investigation was opened after a complaint from a woman who had a family member with Covid-19 and paid for a bed for them.

The gang allegedly asked her for 82,000 soles to place her loved one on the waiting list for an intensive care bed at Guillermo Almenara Hospital in Lima.

Peru has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, which earlier this year saw its hospitals under extreme pressure and oxygen supplies depleted.

In April, the country had a record 15,547 coronavirus patients hospitalized at any given time, up from around 7,000 today.

With some two million infections and nearly 200,000 deaths, Peru is the country in the world with the highest coronavirus death rate.

“It is abominable that someone can swap intensive care beds. I think the punishment should be drastic,” said Health Minister Oscar Ugarte. “We cannot negotiate with people’s lives.”

Corruption scandals around virus care have already shaken the highest levels of power in Peru.

Outrage over earlier allegations that some senior officials received preferential “VIP” vaccinations prompted the country’s health and foreign ministers to step down earlier this year.

The hospital involved in the most recent scandal, administered by the social security system EsSalud, provides free care.

Patients have to endure a long waiting list for the 80 intensive care beds offered by the hospital.

At the height of the pandemic, many patients paid large sums of money to private clinics as the public system was on the verge of collapse.