A senior official in the cardiology department at Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot was questioned under caution on Thursday morning, and two other suspects were detained, in a police investigation into suspicions that blood samples were taken from patients for research without their consent.
Police confirmed that three suspects were detained for questioning and that the case is being handled by the Central District’s fraud and cybercrime unit. The investigation was opened after the hospital’s management filed a complaint last month, having learned that samples were being taken as part of laboratory research in the cardiology unit.
According to the suspicions, patients underwent blood tests that were not medically necessary for their treatment, and the samples were taken for research purposes without their informed consent, as required by law. Under Israeli regulations, medical research must be approved by a Helsinki ethics committee, and each participant must give informed consent even after approval is granted. The hospital has said the case involves a small number of patients.
Around three weeks ago, Kaplan, which is part of the Clalit health network, announced that it had filed the complaint and suspended the senior official from his position. A gag order now bars publication of his name. His representatives have described the case as at most allegedly mistaken conduct.
The blood-sample case is not the first allegation linked to the same official. About two months earlier, Channel 13 News reported that a resident at the hospital claimed the official had allowed cardiology residents to skip stages of their training through false entries in their records. Following the report, the Israel Medical Association revoked the hospital’s authority to train cardiology residents for as long as the official remained on the department’s staff.
Kaplan said it is cooperating fully with the authorities and that routine care in the cardiology department is continuing as normal. Police said the investigation is ongoing.
