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A former clinic boss described the conditions at the heart clinic as a “disaster”. The hospital management is now reacting.
The Zurich University Hospital wants to set up an external task force to investigate whether there were any irregularities at the cardiac surgery clinic. The task force, a committee of experts, is intended to comprehensively investigate the deaths from 2016 to 2020 in particular.
One cannot let bygones be bygones, said Hospital Council President André Zemp at a media conference on Wednesday morning. The University Hospital of Zurich is only credible if it looks closely and learns from mistakes. Statements by former clinic boss Paul Vogt in a Zurich court recently made headlines.
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The director of the Zurich University Hospital, Monika Jänicke, and the president of the hospital council, André Zemp, announced to the media on Wednesday morning that they wanted to have the deaths from 2016 to 2020 examined in detail.
Keystone/Ennio Leanza
Paul Vogt, who actually had to answer for forgery of documents, took the opportunity in court to unpack the conditions at the cardiac surgery clinic. Vogt referred to the events at the cardiac surgery clinic that became public three and a half years ago. The former clinic boss Francesco Maisano is said to have embellished scientific publications, concealed complications during operations and concealed his own financial interests in implants.
The hospital management always assured that no patients were at risk. The former clinic director Paul Vogt, who took over the helm after the grievances became known, recently described the facts differently in court.
“Lists of dead patients”
Vogt is quoted by various media as saying that he found lists of deaths at the clinic and from implant research on his desk that seemed unusual to him. He reported to the clinic management shortly afterwards. He described the university hospital’s statement that no patients were harmed as a lie. He told his superior: “I will not remain silent about the dead.”
Apparently the management of the Zurich University Hospital is now of the opinion that not all questions in this context have yet been clarified. The task force, consisting of international medical professionals but also lawyers, is expected to begin its work in the summer.