Masina’s Munnabhai sacked, flees hospital
Doctors, who trusted their patients in Tariq Ansari’s care, said he never ever gave them any reason to suspect that he was not qualified to do the job.
A man with a stolen registration number of a Jalgaon doctor not only found employment at the prestigious Masina Hospital in Byculla but also manned its intensive care unit for three years before he was busted last week.
The incident raises serious questions about the hospital’s recruitment process as also the wellbeing of its patients since only the most serious cases get referred to intensive care units and require roundthe-clock supervision of the hospital’s best qualified and most experienced hands.
Doctors, who trusted their patients in Ansari’s care, said he never gave them any reason to suspect that he was a quack. “I would admit my patients in ICU and Dr Ansari used to take good care of them. I never got the impression that he was not qualified to do the job. It’s possible he had a degree in some other branch of medicine, but that still makes his presence in ICU unacceptable,” a senior physician said on the condition of anonymity.
The hospital surprisingly has decided not file a police case against Ansari. When Mumbai Mirror contacted the hospital’s medical director Dr Premraj Battalwar, he said it was an internal matter and there was no reason to involve the cops.
Dr Battalwar said there were complaints against Ansari of remaining absent during duty hours. “I had recently started going through the doctors’ qualification records. Something was not quite right with documents submitted by Ansari. A day after I asked him to submit his original documents with the hospital, Ansari disappeared. His phone is now switched off.”
When Mirror asked Dr Battalwar if it would not to be prudent for the hospital to file apolice complaint so that Ansari is not able to con another hospital, he refused to comment. The hospital also refused to share with this newspaper Ansari joining date and service records.
This newspaper’s own investigation revealed that the Medical Council registration number that Ansari used – 85896 – belonged to a certain Dr Amol Mahajan who completed his MBBS in 1998 and MS in general surgery in 2002.
A source said Ansari joined the hospital three years ago as an ICU registrar. “I have seen him on many occasions using this registration number while signing death certificates. We, of course, had no way to know he was using someone else’s registration.”
A senior doctor, who did not wish to be identified, said it was a clear failure on the hospital’s part. “It’s the duty of the hospital administration before appointing any doctor that they should check his degree carefully,” he said.
Dr Abhijit More, member, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, an NGO involved in fighting medico-legal cases, said according to accepted norms only an MD, medicine or MD, anaesthesia can be posted in an ICU. He also said that hospitals are required to clearly state the qualifications of the doctors on their rolls on their web site. “Very soon, the Clinic Establishment (registration and regulation) Act will make it mandatory that all doctors’ qualifications be displayed prominently in a clinic/hospital,” he said.
A man with a stolen registration number of a Jalgaon doctor not only found employment at the prestigious Masina Hospital in Byculla but also manned its intensive care unit for three years before he was busted last week.
The incident raises serious questions about the hospital’s recruitment process as also the wellbeing of its patients since only the most serious cases get referred to intensive care units and require roundthe-clock supervision of the hospital’s best qualified and most experienced hands.
Dr Tariq Ansari, 32, who fled the hospital as soon as he realised his game was up and has since been untraceable, had produced not only an MBBS degree but also a post-graduation speciality certificate in medicine.
Doctors, who trusted their patients in Ansari’s care, said he never gave them any reason to suspect that he was a quack. “I would admit my patients in ICU and Dr Ansari used to take good care of them. I never got the impression that he was not qualified to do the job. It’s possible he had a degree in some other branch of medicine, but that still makes his presence in ICU unacceptable,” a senior physician said on the condition of anonymity.
The hospital surprisingly has decided not file a police case against Ansari. When Mumbai Mirror contacted the hospital’s medical director Dr Premraj Battalwar, he said it was an internal matter and there was no reason to involve the cops.
Dr Battalwar said there were complaints against Ansari of remaining absent during duty hours. “I had recently started going through the doctors’ qualification records. Something was not quite right with documents submitted by Ansari. A day after I asked him to submit his original documents with the hospital, Ansari disappeared. His phone is now switched off.”
When Mirror asked Dr Battalwar if it would not to be prudent for the hospital to file apolice complaint so that Ansari is not able to con another hospital, he refused to comment. The hospital also refused to share with this newspaper Ansari joining date and service records.
This newspaper’s own investigation revealed that the Medical Council registration number that Ansari used – 85896 – belonged to a certain Dr Amol Mahajan who completed his MBBS in 1998 and MS in general surgery in 2002.
A source said Ansari joined the hospital three years ago as an ICU registrar. “I have seen him on many occasions using this registration number while signing death certificates. We, of course, had no way to know he was using someone else’s registration.”
A senior doctor, who did not wish to be identified, said it was a clear failure on the hospital’s part. “It’s the duty of the hospital administration before appointing any doctor that they should check his degree carefully,” he said.
Dr Abhijit More, member, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, an NGO involved in fighting medico-legal cases, said according to accepted norms only an MD, medicine or MD, anaesthesia can be posted in an ICU. He also said that hospitals are required to clearly state the qualifications of the doctors on their rolls on their web site. “Very soon, the Clinic Establishment (registration and regulation) Act will make it mandatory that all doctors’ qualifications be displayed prominently in a clinic/hospital,” he said.
