Medical Fraud !

The strange case of Doctor Sarang  Chitale - or was that Shyam  Acharya - has thrown the spotlight on a deficiency in the Australian health system.  A fraudster managed to steal the identity of a doctor legally certified to practice in England and assume his identity to work as a certified medical practitioner here in Australia.   From 2003 to 2014 he managed to hold down jobs where he treated patients in public hospitals in Manly, Hornsby, Gosford, Wyong and Moss Vale.

As far as we can determine, he appears to have done no harm.  There have been no suspicious deaths under his care, but patients remember him as being rather aggressive and unwilling to communicate with them.  He would most certainly have had the authority to order the administration of drugs and carry out procedures of a nature that can only legally be undertaken by a person with medical accreditation.

Eventually, this bogus doctor moved on to a position of medical director of a research company and in this elevated position his qualifications came under scrutiny from colleagues, resulting in a more detailed background check.  It was then discovered that the real Doctor Sarang Chitale was a medical professional in Britain and Shyam Acharya was a fraudster,.    The bogus doctor fled this country and is now hiding out somewhere in India.

It seems that between 1999 and 2000 these two men lived in the same house of Doctor Chitale's grandmother in India and obviously it was here that Shyam Acharya got the ability to trace the medical accomplishments he intended to steal.    When he moved to Australia his medical history accurately duplicated the path the genuine doctor was following in Britain and Australian authorities had no reason to question their accuracy.   It was assumed that this was just another routine case of a British registered doctor seeking a new life in Australia.

There is obviously more to learn.  Somewhere Acharya must have had exposure to drug names and medical procedures because he worked a s a senior medical registrar at various intensive care units. It is unlikely that he would have survived in such a position without at least a working knowledge of the drugs commonly used, their dosage strengths and applications.   The thought of the disaster potential of having an untrained person dispensing such drugs must send a chill down the spine of hospital administrations.

What also seems amazing is that posing as a doctor does not constitute a serious crime here in Australia.   The fraudster has been fined $ 30,000 in abstentia and has a liability for another $ 22,000 in prosecution costs, but if he is arrested and returned to Australia he will not serve time in a prison.

This case should serve as a wake-up call.   Time the politicians made posing as a doctor a serious criminal offence and the background check on those coming to this country got tightened.