Staff in shock after ‘fake doctor’ worked at Sydney Hospital for EIGHT MONTHS
The woman allegedly landed the job in January, despite not being qualified.
7news.com.au
Staff in shock after ‘fake doctor’ worked at Sydney Hospital for eight months
- Thread starter MikeHattsu
- Start date
7news.com.au
What a weird story! when I clicked the thread, I thought "oh, some dumbass grifter got in, how on earth did they get by for so long", but no, it was a med student who (presumably) went to class for years, and just failed their finals. They probably said "fuck it", applied and faked the paperwork, assuming that it would never work... but it did, so they played along, and probably just kept kicking the can of the papers down the road till it got to this point. They probably were competent enough at the work due to it lasting 7 months before the papers came back
I love how you can look at their outfits, see the black and leather, and instantly know it's from the late 90s-early 2000s. Shit is so dated
Is the Doctor is pretending to be a doctor or is a doctor pretending to be the Doctor? 👀
You don't have to redo schooling, but your chances of getting a position of your choosing pretty much is blown up.
My grandfather died under the care of a fake doctor back in the 90's. He worked for 8 years with falsified documents and never attended med school. He ended up spending a couple years in prison from what I recall.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-07-16-9807160071-story.html
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-07-16-9807160071-story.html
When the world needed him the most, he was there. He's a true hero.
Reminds me of the story of a dude in Germany who became a notorious impostor.
In September 1982, Postel successfully applied for the position of assistant public health officer in Flensburg using the pseudonym of "Dr. med. Dr. phil. Clemens Bartholdy". When asked about his dissertation's subject, he reportedly replied "On pseudologia phantastica [with regard to] the example of the character Felix Krull from the homonymous novel by Thomas Mann and cognitively induced distortions in stereotypical judgment".
(...)
"After studying theology for a while, Postel managed to return to medical service in 1995. Using his birth name, he obtained the position of a senior physician in a clinic specialized on neurology and psychiatry in Zschadraß near Leipzig. As a part of his job, he issued psychiatric expertise and held lectures for medical doctors without raising suspicion with anyone. By chance, a co-worker recognised him on July 10, 1997, forcing him to go into hiding."
en.wikipedia.org
In September 1982, Postel successfully applied for the position of assistant public health officer in Flensburg using the pseudonym of "Dr. med. Dr. phil. Clemens Bartholdy". When asked about his dissertation's subject, he reportedly replied "On pseudologia phantastica [with regard to] the example of the character Felix Krull from the homonymous novel by Thomas Mann and cognitively induced distortions in stereotypical judgment".
(...)
"After studying theology for a while, Postel managed to return to medical service in 1995. Using his birth name, he obtained the position of a senior physician in a clinic specialized on neurology and psychiatry in Zschadraß near Leipzig. As a part of his job, he issued psychiatric expertise and held lectures for medical doctors without raising suspicion with anyone. By chance, a co-worker recognised him on July 10, 1997, forcing him to go into hiding."
Gert Postel - Wikipedia
Not a doctor, but a friend of mine's husband got a huge set back career wise due to failing a USMLE(?). Placements were dropped, had to go back in to residency, move to another state since his current place didn't have a spot for him anymore.
Sounded crazy.
I can definitely see that happening a lot due to the pandemic. Employers are desperate for workers in virtually every field, and I have a feeling they aren't bothering to do much background checking when a promising candidate shows up willing to start.
Sellers market for workers, baby! Good or bad depending on how you look at it.
Sellers market for workers, baby! Good or bad depending on how you look at it.
That's very sad, I'm sorry. The guy was only jailed for a couple of years? Seems lenient.
It obviously depends on a the university, but at mine got got 2 exam redo chances over the entire 4 years. If you fail a redo then you have to redo the block/course (ususaly ~10weeks). If you fail a certain amount of courses (i think 2) you get kicked out of the program.
I assume you are Americian or something. Not exactly how it works in Australia.
There is no standardised testing like the USMLE in australia so if you she failed something it must have been part of the course itself and she would have to redo that.
Also positions aren't based on merit or scores at all in in Austrialia, for hospitals with more applicants that positions it's litterally a lottery sytem where people are literally picked a random. Initial positions don't matter as much though because specialites are determined later your carrer.
People with delayed graduation are put way in the back of the line and stuggle to find jobs, but if they wait til the start of the next year they are on the same footing as anyone else.
How is it not standard practice to get necessary documents from the various needed places directly? Transcripts, exam results, licensing status, etc.
After 8 months of trying to train her they decided to recheck her paperwork and realized stuff was wrong or missing, so I'm guessing she wasn't doing great. If she came across as a normal intern they probably never would have double checked right?
I clicked this thinking it would be him across the globe. I am slightly disappointed.
Not to make light of the situation. Hopefully no one got hurt.
The article says that she was under supervision the entire time. I imagine Australian medical interns, much like in most of the world, aren't really put in situations where they can single handedly make any decisions that affect a patient. When you graduate medical school and get hired by a hospital you are a doctor, but also very much still a student.
Tbh as a first year doctor in Australia theoretical knowledge isn't all that important, you will typically not be making many big desciison and will always have supervision/support
I doubth thats how they found her out. I'm pretty sure the lack of proper paper work just caught up to her. She wouldn't have been able to get the numbers from the govenrment to perscribe medication or do referals.
i know someone who did this in a different profession. never graduated but just got a job in the field anyway with a fake diploma and has been working in the field for so long it doesn't matter anymore. he probably leaves it off his CV these days.
that being said this obviously doesn't work for a fucking doctor lol.
that being said this obviously doesn't work for a fucking doctor lol.
If you're going to be a Pretender, what would you opt for? That's right, Leather.
My girlfriend is a first year resident, and in some ways I can see why this happens. In medical school you learn a ton about the foundations of medicine and disease, but much less about actually coming up with treatment plans for patients. So in a lot of ways, residents are expected to be shit early on and that is why they are tightly supervised and all of their treatment plans and notes need to be signed off by an attending. Through this process is where doctors really learn to become doctors. So in that way, I could see someone being able to fake it until they make it.
But on the onboarding side and getting access to the medial records and systems (which you need to use constantly to do anything), she had to provide so much documentation that she is who she says she is, and that she graduated medical school, and passed her boards. That part I'm not sure how people fake. Make faked documents that no one looked too closely at?
I wasn't involved in any of the proceedings, only a teen back then, so I don't remember all the details. He took a plea deal in regards to faking his documents, which was the only thing he was ever charged for. My family won a small civil suit against him and the hospital, which was like $100k divided between seven siblings. My grandfather was only 63 at the time, and he died two years before this doctor was exposed, so we didn't even know about this guy at the time.
That heavily depends on the country you're in and what you refer to as the final test. Here in Sweden (which is not representative to anywhere in the Anglosphere but whatever) we did course tests at my med school with no final, so failing the final test just means retaking the final test. It would potentially screw over any positions you'd lined up, though.
Swedish doctors aren't licensed until after internship which is after led school. The license exam is the true last test on everything you've learned for the past 8 years. If you fail it you won't get licensed but you can retake it so, again, it mostly screws with whatever job you've lined up after internship. That's typically residency though which is another training position, so in the rare cases when some fails (93 % or so pass) most hospitals would let you continue on as an intern-like trainee doctor on a "substitute" basis (rather than a full position) until you retake and pass it.
As for how much studying that means it's up to why you'd fail in the first place I guess.