Corruption in healthcare system during Covid-19. The italian case

The Covid-19 pandemic had a massive impact on the global economy and the decisions making process, in particular related to the healthcare system. The most vulnerable ones have shown how an efficient healthcare system could be useful during a crisis. A recent research states that «corruption is embedded in health systems» (García, 2019, p. 2119). It can have different forms (Vian, 2008), both as petty corruption and systemic corruption (Vannucci, 2012). The pandemic crisis increased opportunities for illegal network to infiltrate healthcare system, in particular the corrupted ones (Rispoli et al., 2020). Few studies argument that corruption is an “ignored pandemic” in the sector. In particular, in Italy 2,4% of the families received the request for a gift or a favor in exchange of healthcare services (ISTAT, 2017), a data which is supported by recent studies that demonstrate how political corruption characterize the system (Della Porta et al., 2015). Hence, the topic seems to be prominently (Hutchinson et al., 2019). The paper will analyze the mechanism of corruption in local and regional healthcare from March 2020 to nowadays. Therefore, there will be provided an in-depth analysis of a case study that has been choosed after an extensive literature and press review. The analysis of the case study allows to highlight some trends that the pandemic has generated about corruption in health care system in Italy. The article is a first attempt to explain how corruption has changed because of Covid-19, the roles of each actor involved and the resources exchanged.