An Italian doctor is being investigated after it was found that he had only worked 15 days in the past nine years, the Telegraph reports.
The unnamed doctor use a number of reasons to get out of work beginning in 2005 when he disappeared from a taxpayer-sponsored university training course.
He returned to work on Oct. 31, 2008 only to ask for paid leave through May 2009.
Between May and July of 2009, the doctor worked 15 days before calling out sick.
Following his recovery, the doctor then took another university training course; this course lasted until June 2014. Now, the doctor is working on a doctorate degree, which he will finish in December 2016.
The case is now being used as an example of "inefficiences of Italy's legion of civil servants," according to the Telegraph.
The Telegraph reports:
Commenting on the case, Sicilian paper Giornale di Siracusa complained: "We are all paying for this, from his training courses to his illnesses, to his family leave."
At the hospital, director Franco Luca said he was trying to get the missing doctor back to doing rounds while launching an inquiry to help cut down on leaves of absence that were "not strictly necessary or indispensible".
But, he added, the doctor's time off had fallen within the rules.
The doctor, 50, said he was being unfairly punished by the media. "It was all regular and legal," he said. "I am being lynched by the press and even the hospital confirms I have acted correctly. Going on courses is normal and I am being punished for developing my understanding."