Fake doctor with no medical training found working seven months at Catalan Hospital

The Berga Hospital has admitted "significant irregularities" in their recruitment after it was found that a person had been working as a doctor for seven months at the health center despite having no medical training. 

However, the hospital said that the woman was accompanied by a superior at all times, as she had said that she had only recently graduated. 

A second hospital, the Dexeus-Quirón group, one of the biggest private hospitals in Barcelona, also announced on Friday that the fake doctor had worked with them for a period. 

"She is very smart and cautious," the manager of the Berga Hospital, Antònia Baraldés, explained in a press conference on Friday. "It was only noticed that she asked her colleagues a lot of questions before making any report." Her colleagues did not notice any other irregularities. 

The woman had not studied medicine or had any kind of training in this field.

The hospital says there have been no complaints from patients and no anomalies in care given to patients. 

Alert was first raised about the fake doctor's situation when a private company where the woman also wanted to work notified the hospital that she did not have the relevant degree.

Immediately, the hospital removed the woman from her position, opened an internal investigation, and reported the fake doctor to the Catalan police.

According to the center's internal investigation, there were significant irregularities in the recruitment process for the woman and as a result of this case, the head of HR has been dismissed. 

"We consider that they did not do their job well", Baraldés explained, who added that the case was an "isolated" one, assuring that they have a "zero tolerance" policy for such errors.

In a statement, the Metges de Catalunya doctors' union asked the Catalan health authorities for more control over recruitment to avoid another case of such professional fraud.

The union considers that the shortage of doctors "cannot justify the laxity" in verifying candidates' training, skills, and work experience. "The controls must be exhaustive and the guarantees must be total."