A woman in the Spanish region of Catalonia has been accused of posing as a doctor and working in an emergency room for several months.
The Berga Hospital in the province of Barcelona began investigations after they received a report of the woman trying to work in another center without proper accreditation, Spanish newspaper, El Pais reported.
During her seven months at the hospital, the woman, who has not been named, worked under the supervision of a senior doctor and had been involved in several medical procedures.
The procedures were straightforward meaning there had been no complaints from the public while she was working at the hospital, the newspaper reported.
Her co-workers said the only seemingly odd thing about the woman was that she asked a lot of questions, El Pais reported.
"She was prudent, whenever she had to sign a report or a prescription, she would ask," hospital manager Antònia Baraldés said in a press release.
Investigators discovered that the woman had no medical qualification and had been using the collegiate number of another doctor, the manager said in a press conference.
The woman stated that she lacked an official qualification because she had only recently graduated.
A staff member in the Human Resources department of the hospital has been fired because of hiring irregularities, Baraldés said.
The case has been passed onto local police and a tighter control of hiring procedures at hospitals has been demanded by Metges de Catalunya, a local medical union.
The union has also asked for an investigation to be launched into the "chain of errors" involved in the case, that had constituted a risk to the health of patients.
In 2016 Malachi Love-Robinson, a Florida teenager, was found to be running his own medical practice despite only having graduated from high school.
The teen ran the The New Birth New Life Medical Center, naming himself "Dr. Love," NBC reported.
He stole $30,000 from an elderly patient while on house calls and also stole $20,000 from a doctor.
He was caught after a police officer attended the practice undercover and was prescribed treatment by the teen.
According to the Associated Press, Love-Robinson was subsequently sentenced to more than two years in prison in 2022 after pleading guilty in Palm Beach County, Florida, to grand theft and organized scheme to defraud.
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