Assistant Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Henry Okwuokenye, said that the council has uncovered a fake medical doctor in Gombe.
While briefing journalists in Gombe on Monday, he said that the fake medical practitioner was reported to the council by his employer.
According to Okwuokenye, the council’s committee on medical quackery, upon the report, visited the hospital to ascertain the veracity of the information.
Prior to his arrest by police operatives, upon investigation by the council, the fake doctor was providing services to clients in a private hospital in the metropolis.
Okwuokenye said, “We had a tip-off that someone is working here with documents that are not likely to belong to him. That is why we came with the director of medical services of the state.
“Fortunately, or unfortunately, when we arrived here the doctor was on duty. So, we started some sort of interactions with him and the process given the fact that truly, he (fake doctor) was not the owner of the document.”
Okwuokenye revealed that the council had completed the investigation, stressing that it has the data of all doctors in Nigeria.
“Whether you are trained in Nigeria or outside the country as long as you have to practice here the council will license you to function is part of our mandate. We have robust data for all doctors across the country. We can tell across the country, so we can tell that the document is cloned from another person’s document,” the Assistant Registrar said.
Lamenting on how previous investigations handed to the police had gone unresolved, Okwuokenye said they were going to allow the security operatives to conclude findings, urging private health facilities to do due diligence before recruiting staff.
He added, “For owners of private hospitals: before you recruit a doctor, you must verify the document. We have eyes everywhere in the country. If they must forge documents, they must stay away from medical practice. Removing people like this helps the health sector.”
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