MINISTRY REVIEW AFTER FAKE DOCTOR CASE
Health Ministry to ensure it doesn’t happen again
THE Health Ministry will review its security procedures following a recent case involving a man who impersonated a doctor at a hospital in Kedah for over a year before being nabbed.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, said the ministry viewed the incident seriously and would relook its system and control measures.
“We want to know how, even though we have a system of control, the incident occurred and how we need to improve it to ensure that it will not happen in the future,” he said at the Melaka MIC Convention at Melaka International Trade Centre (MITC) here on Sunday.
Dr Subramaniam said he was informed by the Kedah health authorities that the man would frequent the hospital dressed in a lab coat and would be seen at a specific area of the hospital.
“I was informed that he would talk to the people inside. He did not perform the duties of a doctor, but merely impersonated one.”
On Aug 9, it was reported that a smartly dressed man with a stethoscope around his neck, going by the name of “Dr Ridzuan”, had been frequenting Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital.
A senior doctor, who checked the hospital’s record, realised that there was no such doctor working there.
The 22-year-old man was arrested shortly after the hospital lodged a report on the same day.