The records of up to 3,000 foreign doctors working for the NHS are to be reviewed following the revelation that a woman with fake qualifications practised psychiatry in the UK for more than two decades.
Yet she got onto the UK medical register under a section of the Medical Act that allowed medical school graduates from certain Commonwealth countries, including New Zealand, to join on the basis of the qualification they obtained at home, “without having to sit and pass the standard two-part assessment of their medical knowledge and skills”, Sky News reports.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Although this law “has not been in force since 2003”, fears have been raised that other fake doctors may also have snuck in during the 1990s.
Alemi’s false medical qualification was only discovered following her conviction last month of fraud and theft offences. Cumbrian newspaper News and Star launched an investigation after it emerged that while working as a consultant psychiatrist for a dementia service in West Cumbria, Alemi had forged an 87-year-old widow’s will in a bid to inherit her £1.3m estate.
The victim, who knew Alemi as “Julia”, told police: “Julia has drafted a will. Julia has put herself down for everything as I did not tell her I had a family but I don't want her having it all.”
Police later searched Alemi’s office and home and seized a number of items including the new will and bank cards belonging to the victim, and dozens of watches that had been owned by the widow’s late husband.
The fake doctor insisted the items were being held there with the victim’s permission, but was convicted over the scam by Carlisle Crown Court and jailed for five years.
Following the revelation about her lack of qualifications, the General Medical Council (GMC) apologised for its “inadequate” checks on medical practitioners, the BBC reports. The health watchdog has launched a web page with advice for anyone who may have been treated by Alemi.
-
Schools: The return of a dreaded fitness testFeature Donald Trump is bringing the Presidential Fitness Test back to classrooms nationwide
-
An insatiable hunger for proteinFeature Americans can't get enough of the macronutrient. But how much do we really need?
-
Health: Will medical science survive RFK Jr.?Feature Robert F. Kennedy Jr. scrapped $500 million in mRNA vaccine research contracts
-
Captain Tom charity closes to donations amid daughter’s pool rowSpeed Read Hannah Ingram-Moore to appeal council order to demolish spa complex at her home
-
The Week Unwrapped: Sex and health, the Earth’s core and another new yearpodcast Is the NHS failing British women? What’s going on at the centre of our planet? And what’s in a date?
-
National nursing strike: should the patient ‘always come first’?Talking Point Recent YouGov poll found that 65% of public approves of strike action
-
The science behind lab-grown bloodfeature Development of ‘absolute game changer’ could help those with sickle cell and other conditions
-
‘Moving CBBC online isn’t modernisation – it’s dangerous’Instant Opinion Your digest of analysis from the British and international press
-
The Week Unwrapped: Quitting China, social age checks and dental desertspodcast Why has AirBnB given up on China? Are social networks finally taking age limits seriously? And why is it so hard to find a dentist?
-
‘Negotiation with Putin would be a moral disaster’Instant Opinion Your digest of analysis from the British and international press
-
The Week Unwrapped: Home-working pay cuts, Taiwan and Cinderellapodcast Should people who work from home earn 20% less? Is Taiwan at risk of a Chinese invasion? And what does the failure of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest production tell us about post-Covid theatre?
