‘Bogus’ doctor facing jail worked at Denia hospital

THREE people face two years in prison for working as doctors in the province using bogus qualifications. THE Alicante Medical Association (Colegio de Medicos) revealed three cases of people working as doctors in the province without qualifications in 2008 and 2009.

This was revealed by Juan Jose Vicedo of the Colegio de Medicos which found they had worked at hospitals at San Juan, Alicante, Elche and Denia.

Vicedo explained all three cases have been reported to the authorities.

A resident doctor at San Juan Hospital suspected a woman from Ecuador working as an intern, and reported it to the Colegio de Medicos which discovered she had also worked at Alicante Hospital.

At the hospital the woman used student identification pretending to be a sixth year medical student. While her identification was authentic, it transpired it belonged to someone else and she had changed the photograph for her own.

Meanwhile, an Italian man pretending to be a qualified doctor attended to 191 patients, earned €1,000 in 2008 working at an Elche health centre. The man turned out to be a waiter who had presented a photocopy of a forged doctor’s certificate, Vicedo said.

Another Italian was found to have treated patients at a doctors’ surgery in Vell d’Ebo (Marina Alta) and at the accident and emergency department of a Denia hospital.

He had reportedly presented fake qualifications from a university in Germany, but was discovered five days later after a computer system rejected his registration number needed to issue a prescription.