Fake Finnish physician fools patients and staff for months

suicide-pillsA 23-year-old Finnish man has been arrested under suspicion of posing as a doctor in a medical facility, with the deception continuing over almost a year.

The man pretended to be a physician at the Karkkila Health Centre where he claimed he was a ward doctor. Police investigations revealed that the man has no medical training at all, but rather had forged his way into the position through fraudulent medical certificates in order to gain access to the Karkkila facility. He later continued the scam at an additional health centre in Karjaa.

YLE reports that police arrested the man last week on charges of unauthorised practice in the health care profession along with fraud and aggravated forgery. Whether he will be remanded into custody will be decided later this week.

The police inquiry was requested at the Vihti station some two weeks ago after suspicions were aroused by medical staff. Authorities have declared, however, that as he was under the constant supervision of a senior medical officer, the man posed no real threat or danger to his patients.

According to Pirjo Pennanen, medical advisor with VALVIRA – the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health medical watchdog – the remarkable thing in the case was that the man’s ruse continued even after he had written prescriptions for patients. In an interview on YLE radio Pennanen explained that a central registry with unique identifiers is still in its infancy after being introduced last year.

Health workers are reviewing the fraudulent doctor’s prescriptions and contacting all of the patients who received treatment.

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