A case of fraud has been opened against a man who never completed his degree but who worked as a doctor at Northdale Hospital for 14 months, after allegedly using fraudulent results to be registered as an intern.
In 2016, when he applied for a medical internship at the hospital, Reshal Dayanand had produced a University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) academic record showing that he had completed Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees. The hospital employed him and he had worked there for 14 months, earning more than R600,000 during that period, reports the Sunday Tribune.
However, in March 2017, UKZN received correspondence from the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) saying it had discovered that Dayanand had used fraudulent results to be registered as a medical intern and that they were in the process of de-registering him.
He was suspended pending an investigation.
The legal team representing him now wants the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) to compel UKZN to allow Dayanand to be registered so he can complete a final course year or redo modules he did not pass in 2016.
Dayanand had originally applied for a second year of study at KZN’s Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine in 2006, having abandoned his studies at the Walter Sisulu University that same year after an alleged hijacking that apparently left him traumatised.
As the UKZN curriculum differed from the Walter Sisulu University one, he had to repeat his first year at UKZN in 2007, and continued studying there until 2010.
Dayanand said when he was to start his final year in 2011, he suffered from stress and anxiety related to his hijacking in 2006. This led to his de-registration while he received treatment.
In 2015, he returned to UKZN to complete his final year but did not complete a six-week block in Integrated Medicine 3 and also had a supplementary Obstetrics and Gynaecology (OSCE) 3 oral exam. He allegedly passed the exam at a later stage but the Integrated Medicine 3 requirement was outstanding.
Despite this, he went ahead and applied for a medical internship at Northdale Hospital, where he was hired after producing what appeared to be a UKZN academic record showing he had completed Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees.
An investigation by UKZN revealed that Dayanand was not on the 2016 graduation list. UKZN also said it had no knowledge of who had verified his qualification prior to registering him with the HPCSA, and a case of fraud was opened.
Laurence Combrink SC for Dayanand told the court that his client had been in limbo for five years, yet he had never been expelled by UKZN or subjected to a disciplinary process.
Advocate Murray Pitman, for UKZN and the HPCSA, said when a student had been absent for a certain period they had to re-apply with the institution.
He said Dayanand had never applied and he should have submitted his application for consideration like any other student.
The court reserved judgment.
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