The Southwest Finland Police Department has published a devastating release on an alleged series of crimes carried out between 2011 and 2014 in the city of Turku. The case involves a palliative care nurse and a doctor and six officials from the city of Turku.
According to police information, the nurse is suspected of negligent homicide, fraud, aggression, embezzlement, counterfeiting and multiple drug offences. The doctor who worked for the same company is also suspected of involvement in the above crimes. In addition to them, six officials from the city of Turku, three of them still in office, are suspected of negligence in supervising the work of medical personnel.
The pre-trial investigation has been carried out for two years under the direction of Inspector Mika Paaer.
Police experts are trying to clarify if the nurse and the doctor have any responsibility in the death of at least three of the 185 patients whose care was transferred to them by the city of Turku after a signing a four-year contract which expired at the end of 2014.
"Ambiguities and clear deficiencies"
The preliminary investigation has focused on suspected negligence on the part of the nurse, who according to the police is suspected to "have endangered the health, possibly also the life," of her patients.
Police detailed in their note that she is suspected of having abused her high level of trust while patients were dependent of her care. For example, she is suspected of taking advantage from "sick and defenseless people in order to seek financial gain." But also of having mistreated patients and of falsifying medical prescriptions, among other bad practices.
"Ambiguities and clear deficiencies have been identified in patient's medical records and death certificates," police said.
For example, it is stipulated that only a doctor can determine if a person is dead. However, during the investigation the police have ascertained that an estimated 100 to 120 patients were not declared dead by a doctor. And most of these cases occurred during the suspected nurse's shift.
Prosecution time extended
Due to confidentiality rules, the police could only obtain medical records of three patients. But investigators believe there are much more potentially similar cases.
Crimes against officials would have expired by the end of 2019, but the prosecutor applied for an extension of time to prosecute. District Court of Southwest Finland decided in February to extend the prosecution for another year.
Police will soon hand over about 500 pages of pre-trial investigation to the prosecutor. The data cover a total of 23 different crimes.
The police have called on those families whose assets may have been transferred to the suspects during 2011-2014 to contact them in order to clarify if their case is related to the matter under investigation.
