Medical Scams: Beware Fake Physicians

[george]

MEDICAL SCAMS: Beware fake physicians

Impersonators take advantage of high demand for doctors, lax ID checks

A patient was thrilled one day to see a nameplate bearing the name of his old friend Dr Pichai (not his real name) on the door of an examining room at a small privately run hospital in a northern province.

Although it wasn't exactly a "good day" - he had to visit a hospital, after all - he thought it was brilliant running into his old friend, the doctor, who used to lived in a neighbouring province and whom he had not seen since the doctor moved to Central Thailand years earlier.

But the smile on his face turned into a deep frown the moment the patient came face to face with the doctor sitting inside the room. It was not the Pichai he knew. He had absolutely no idea what was going on.

After leaving the room, the man phoned the real Dr Pichai to prove to himself that what had just happened was not a nightmare or an April fool's joke.

Dr Pichai, on the other end of the line, insisted he was still living in the Central province and had not played a prank on the man.

The fake doctor was arrested shortly after the real Dr Pichai reported the story to the Medical Council, which sought cooperation from the Bureau of Medical Registration and local police.

The case was one of about nine involving fake doctors reported to the Medical Council last year. As far as the council is concerned, that's nine too many.

"The irony is that most, if not all, of the cases were unearthed by accident," said Dr Somsak Lolekha, the president of the council. "And God only knows how many other fake doctors are still out there conning people."

Fake doctors usually move quite frequently to avoid being caught red-handed. And their favourite targets are part-time jobs at small, privately run medical institutions of a size somewhere between a clinic and a hospital.

The main reason is that such healthcare facilities tend to be lax about checking the identities and medical qualifications of job applicants, largely due to the strong demand for part-time doctors to fill the vacancies, said Dr Somsak.

They typically work no longer than one or two months at each place. In most cases, fake doctors are found to be people familiar with medicine, such as those who have trained for support jobs at a hospital. Some are even pharmacists or graduates with science degrees.

Apart from the patients and real doctors themselves, of course, the phoney physician problem affects private health insurance companies, which incur losses when fake doctors forge signatures on certificates used to reimburse patients. As a consequence, the insurance companies have begun to seek access to the Medical Council's database of real doctors. They now have to buy a CD containing the names and ID numbers of doctors every year.

Another result of the fake doctor phenomenon is that many licensed doctors have been forced by the hospitals they work for to get their licences reissued by the council, with the new one bearing a photo.

Also, both state- and privately run hospitals are now required to display their doctors' licences in sight of the patients under a new hospital-accreditation programme.

Many doctors who have been practising for several years misplace their licences. Before the accreditation programme was brought in, many hospitals rarely asked to see the licences of doctors who were applying for their second or subsequent jobs, said Somsak.

A related problem involves licences to operate clinics, which can only be issued to licensed doctors. Most violations in this area involve the displaying of a doctor's licence to keep a clinic open and make illegal profits when the actual doctor is not on duty, such as during night shifts.

In some cases in which a doctor owns his or her own clinic, an assistant - mostly nurses - or their spouses, who are not doctors, pose as doctors, examining patients and prescribing medication.

Impersonating a doctor is prohibited under the Medical Practice Act of 1982, Article 16, carrying a maximum penalty of three years in jail and a fine of Bt30,000. It also violates Article 264 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum 10-year jail term and fine of Bt20,000.

"Don't just trust someone because they look like a doctor," said Somsak.

--The Nation 2004-06-21

[stumonster]

wonder if there is a plan to investigate people with PHD's who are in charge of the health of a nation. A short competency test should suffice?

[megashox]

"Don't just trust someone because they look like a doctor," said Somsak.

That statement is giving me second thoughts on having a prostate exam!

[astral]

Out of curiosity how many PhD' are there in Thailand?

It should be easy to tell as they are addressed in Thai as Doctor,

not Mor, which is a medical doctor.

I have only met one, and he works for Bangkok Bank, in a senior IT position.