‘Tough tests’ that failed to expose fake psychiatrist
A FAKE psychiatrist who worked for decades in the NHS without any medical qualifications passed supposedly strengthened checks just five years ago.
Zholia Alemi, 55, worked for the health service for 22 years after duping her way on to the UK medical register with a forged degree certificate in 1995.
The General Medical Council claimed that the conwoman, who arrived in the UK from New Zealand, took advantage of less stringent rules in the 1990s which allowed doctors from Commonwealth countries to apply to work in Britain by simply presenting their qualification documents without sitting exams.
But yesterday it emerged that she was ‘revalidated’ to remain on the GMC register in 2013, soon after the introduction of stricter rules designed to ensure all doctors stay up to date with their fields of medicine.
In addition, Alemi, who worked in Ayrshire, Dundee and the Highlands, acted as a ‘responsible officer’ for other doctors, which gave her the power to raise concerns or sign off their own revalidations.
By then the GMC was already aware of questions about her honesty and practice, having started investigations following reports from at least two hospitals and a private care provider in 2010.
Alemi, who became a consultant in 2001, also passed a two-part Royal College of Psychiatrists exam in 2003 before being recommended for entry on to the specialist medical register by the college in 2012.
Despite her interactions with regulatory bodies, nobody picked up on the fact that she did not have a medical degree.
The GMC is now looking into Alemi’s work across the UK to try to find out how many patients may have been harmed by her treatment. Its findings will be handed to Cumbria Police, who are expected to launch an investigation into more allegations of fraud.
Her lies were only discovered after she was convicted of trying to fake the will of an elderly woman to steal her £1.3million fortune. She was jailed for five years last month. Two months earlier she had finally been suspended from practising.
Last night a spokesman for the GMC admitted their checks in 1995, when Alemi entered the medical register, were ‘inadequate’.
But she pointed out that Alemi had passed all her Royal College exams and said the revalidation process in 2013 was not necessarily concerned with basic qualifications, adding: ‘Its focus is on reviewing what a doctor has done to retain and build on their knowledge and skills.’