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    NHS doctor who faked degree told to pay £400k or face more jail time
    United Kingdom

    NHS doctor who faked degree told to pay £400k or face more jail time

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    15 Comments

    1. Icy_Zucchini_1138 on

      It costs so much and is so difficult to even get into medical school, you’d have to wonder how many more are willing to pay to get a plausible but fake education certificate, and how willing a stretched NHS might be to overlook it.

    2. Sensitive_Echo5058 on

      It’s interesting that she worked in the field of psychiatry. I would imagine this may be the one field of medicine where someone could plausibly get away with faking their clinical competencies and qualifications.

      1. Patients are often stigmatised, so perhaps they will be less likely to be believed if they raise concerns about a clinician.

      2. Some patients will also lack capacity and awareness, so they are more vulnerable to be taken advantage of.

      3. A ward psychiatrist may be working in isolation from other psychiatrists who would otherwise recognise deficits in competencies.

      4. Diagnoses in psychiatry can often be subjective, so if other less senior practitioners or nurses are less confident in their assessment abilities, they may be less likely to challenge a psychiatrist with more senior status.

      It would not surprise me if there are other ‘fake’ psychiatrists working in the UK, though I’d imagine this would be in the minority of cases. Some services may try to circumvent the rules to save money. Particularly in the private sector, which are often commissioned from NHS funds.

    3. Smaxter84 on

      Does anyone remember the head of safety at the nuclear plant who had an engineering degree from a fake university? That one was really funny…

    5. Independent-Egg-9760 on

      Interesting that the BBC refer to her as being “of Burnley” when she’s Iranian.

      Yet when a man who’s lived in the Caribbean for the last seven years is arrested, he’s not “Nicholas Knowles of Kingston, Jamaica.”

      He’s “formerly of Ashton under Lyme”.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpw70l59884o

    6. Responsible_Loss8246 on

      Do they not contact references or even check certificates beyond “yeah, looks legit”?

      You’d think they’d more careful when employing medical staff.

    7. NuclearBreadfruit on

      The thing is, it doesn’t say anything about the actual quality of her practice. These stories always fascinated me, because she was apparently successfully practicing for 20 years.

      Obviously what she did was wrong, stupid and dangerous.

      But at what point does the degree stop mattering and competence and experience takes over? (presuming for a second that she became competent). It wasn’t like she was caught after a year by her peers, and if she was newly graduated or rather pretending to be, she would still have been supervised. She got through 20 years of treating patients apparently with success and engaging with her fellow doctors with out suspicion. So at what point is she no longer faking being a doctor and actually being one in all ways except for the degree?

      However if she spent that twenty years being an absolute incompetent menace than that’s different and also some of the blame lays with the NHS for letting her get away with it.

    8. Rude_Society6232 on

      I was treated by this woman! She’s the damn reason why I never sought any help for my mental health again!!!

      Hope she rots!!!!

    9. CreepyTool on

      I’m torn on this. If she was working and she did a good job, clawing back her pay seems unfair. But yet, we can’t have randoms play acting doctors.

    11. gerhardsymons on

      At least she can’t be ‘struck off’ since she isn’t a doctor in the first place.

      Swings and roundabouts.

    12. Dictatorsmith on

      Even qualified psychiatrists can be woefully neglectful. The stories from a trainee psychotherapist I know show that the couple she trains under are inept even with a small ward of 7-8 patients

    13. -NiMa- on

      **”A woman who worked as an NHS psychiatrist for more than 20 years after she got the job with a fake qualification.**” After 20 years!!!! 💀

    14. Far_Thought9747 on

      This is just another case showing how inept the NHS/GMC is. Even in the engineering industry I work in, we have licences that are easily checked and endorsed worldwide. It’s a licence where all applicants, regardless of the country their from, have to prove their knowledge and skill at a universal level to gain qualification. Our licence numbers can be checked by anyone in any country to prove our competence.

      Yet, someone who’s is in a medical profession can just turn up with a bit of paper, and they believe it. Also, in 20 years, no one’s noticed she’s not competent? That tells me they’re used to incompetence, willfully ignorant, and lack accountability.

      Although, after further research, she bypassed the PLAB (assessment of skills) by entering under a section of the Medical Act, which has not been used since 2003. 
      Legislation in force until 2003 allowed graduates from medical schools in certain Commonwealth countries, including New Zealand, to obtain registration to practise in the UK based on a qualification in their originating country.

      I think the NHS saying they’re reviewing all foreign doctors’ qualifications should just be a start, and then they should move on to all roles. As there’s been quite a few nurses caught with fake qualifications over the years.

    15. Fit_Manufacturer4568 on

      It’s slightly understandable if it was from a Pakistani, Ghanian or Nigerian university etc. But surely to god they could have contacted a University in New Zealand to check.