Twenty-three health practitioners have been blacklisted and banned from working in Qatar for providing forged certificates, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has said.
They include 17 doctors, four allied healthcare practitioners and two nurses.
The ministry said on Sunday that strict inspection procedures have contributed, in the current year, to the detection of 23 forged certificates of health practitioners, who had applied for licences to practise the profession in Qatar's health sector.
Most of the forged documents were certificates of experience, and legal actions were taken against the persons concerned, QNA reported. Accordingly, the 23 individuals were blacklisted and banned from working in the country, in addition to their names being circulated among the GCC countries in keeping with the relevant measures.
The MoPH stressed that it "applies the highest standards for registering and licensing health practitioners in various specialties, for those who want to work in the health sector in Qatar, in a manner that guarantees to raise the level of health services provided in the country".
The ministry, represented by the Department of Healthcare Professions, undertakes procedures to verify the validity of scientific credentials and factual experiences, in addition to other documents required for licensing, as these procedures contribute to detecting any fraud before registering the health practitioner to work in the country.
Dr Saad Rashid al-Kaabi, director of the Department of Healthcare Professions at the MoPH, said: Through our procedures, we are keen to verify the validity of the certificates and documents provided and ensure that the practitioners applying for registration and licensing are among those who value the ethics of the profession and know the trust commended to them."
He explained that verifying the authenticity of documents at a very early stage of the registration and licensing procedures and before the involvement of a health practitioner in any work in the country contributed to the early detection of fraud cases and protection of patients, which confirmed the importance of the procedures followed by the ministry. The Department of Health Professions is the competent authority to deal with the certificates and documents submitted by health practitioners across various categories and specialties, which are received from various countries to obtain licences to practise the profession in Qatar.
The team responsible for registration and licensing at the MoPH conducts personal interviews with the health practitioner in the presence of a representative from the entity s/he intends to work with to discuss with him/her the forged certificate of experience and hear his/her statements and defence. If it is proven with certainty that the forgery has occurred, appropriate legal actions shall be taken against him/her.
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