Dozens of doctors and nurses from the Loreto Mare hospital put under house arrest after investigation into staff repeatedly skipping work

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Doctors and nurses are among 94 hospital workers from Naples who have been placed under investigation on suspicion of repeatedly skipping work, police have said .

One supervisor at the Loreto Mare hospital was found working as a chef in a hotel, while an on-duty doctor was spotted playing tennis and going shopping. Two health workers were caught clocking in 20 colleagues each day to make it look like they were on the job.

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Police said on Friday that 55 of the suspects had been placed under house arrest. There was no immediate comment from the hospital.

In a bid to tackle corruption in the notoriously inefficient public sector, the government signed into law last year a measure to immediately suspend people caught dodging work, pending an investigation into whether they should then be fired.

Managers who fail to comply with the new rules risk being fired themselves.