KZN Health has called on its hospital managements to enforce stricter screening when taking on medical staff, following the arrest of a second bogus doctor, reports The Times.
The Times reports that the department commended the CEO of Nkonjeni Hospital in Zululand for alerting authorities to the man.
“According to hospital management, he never worked without supervision, and was also not allowed to prescribe medication. The 24-year-old man, who has been charged with fraud, was arrested after police received a complaint about his alleged disappearance with R40,000 that he had borrowed from various Nkonjeni hospital staffers,” said the department.
The report says the department also mentioned Nokwanda Dlamini who was arrested after posing as a doctor in July. After the recent incident, Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu has written to all district directors and health institutions, instructing them to stop the direct intake of students.
“We’re obviously concerned by these incidents. That is why, even after the first incident, we started reviewing our own internal processes that are followed when admitting these students,” she said.
“We realise that in a quest to make the process easier and not too bureaucratic for students who need to do their practicals during the holidays, our systems might have had loopholes, which criminals have evidently tried to exploit.
“We are now changing our systems so that they are watertight. We cannot, in any circumstances, allow any unqualified person to have access to our patients.”
A “doctor” who worked at a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal without a medical qualification did not appear in the Vryheid Magistrate’s Court as expected as police were still investigating. A report on the IoL site notes that he is facing a charge of fraud.
The student, who according to police dropped out of medical school in the first year, was arrested when police received a complaint and he had allegedly disappeared with R40,000 belonging to his colleague. According to police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala, investigations had also revealed that the man was wanted for three fraud cases in Secunda and Mamelodi.
KZN Health spokesperson Ntokozo Maphisa said the department had embarked on a programme to tighten the processes that regulate the admission of medical interns.
[link url="https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/another-bogus-doctor-in-court-for-working-in-kzn-hospitals-2c6eca99-62ec-4f48-8208-fba7a6d7d945"]Full report on the IoL site[/link]
[link url="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-09-02-mec-promises-stricter-screening-when-hiring-after-another-fake-doctor-bust/"]Full report in The Times[/link]
See also
[link url="https://www.medicalbrief.co.za/archives/1st-year-med-school-dropout-worked-as-kzn-hospital-doctor/"]1st-year med school dropout worked as KZN hospital doctor[/link]