Bihar doctor sacked following surprise inspection by hospital authorities

Patna: A child specialist posted with a premier government medical college in Bihar has been dismissed from service after a quack was found proxying for him during a surprise inspection conducted by the hospital authorities.

The dismissed health expert Dr. Shaukat Ali, a paediatrician with Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree, was posted with the Government Medical College at Bettiah in West Champaran district.

Hospital authorities said during the surprise inspection on Monday afternoon, the Matron Sister Helen spotted a stranger with a stethoscope around his neck, attending patients admitted to the paediatric ward and also scribbling prescriptions to them. The patients’ attendants had no idea that the man attending their wards was not the genuine doctor.

“On being confronted, the man identified himself as a private compounder of the missing Dr. Ali. He also admitted to proxying for the child specialist on latter’s instruction. The matron immediately clicked his photograph and alerted us on WhatsApp,” hospital superintendent Dr. Pramod Tiwari said.

Matter probed

Soon after the matter came to light, the hospital administration set up a seven-member medical board to probe the matter in detail. The board later recommended for summary dismissal of the doctor for trying to play with the lives of children by deputing his private compounder to treat them in his place.

“Dr. Ali services have been terminated,” hospital’s principal Dr. Binod Prasad said. The hospital administration, however, didn’t initiate action again the impersonator saying the entire chapter stands closed now with the dismissal of the doctor concerned.

Quacks are having roaring practice in Bihar due to scarcity of specialist doctors at the government hospitals. Also, the specialist doctors have been charging much at their private clinics, prompting the poor villagers to rush to quacks for seeking medical advices.

Recently, another such impersonator Dr. Girijanand Prasad was dismissed from service after he was caught having performed over 14,000 sterilization surgeries by possessing fake medical degrees. The accused doctor was removed from service after the documents accessed through Right to Information revealed he was using the medical registration number of some other doctor to run his medical practice.