Hamoud Abu Talib Okaz WERE you surprised or shocked when you read the news of a fake doctor apprehended recently by police in Jeddah? Let me speak for myself: I was not surprised or shocked at all. After all, we have unearthed plumbers, blacksmiths and auto repair workers working inside polyclinics and laboratories, all wearing white coats. The matter of the fact is many individuals were caught in our country doing jobs they had no idea or technical training about. Fake colleges and universities outside the Kingdom keep issuing these bogus diplomas and certificates. The Kingdom does not employ strict penalties against those caught with fake diplomas. We just let them get away with a fine and deportation order. They usually take the money they earned illegally through falsified diplomas when they return to their home countries. Have you heard of any country that imposes the same fine and penalty? I don't think so. The fake doctor worked for 11 years in the Kingdom at four different hospitals without being caught. He even got raises and incentives every time he transferred from one workplace to another. Neither the hospital management nor his colleagues, patients or official inspectors noticed anything suspicious about this fake doctor. Investigations showed that he studied nursing for a while then quit college and decided to take a short cut to becoming a practicing doctor. He found a person who was willing to sell his medicine diploma. (Personally speaking, I don't think someone who has spent years studying medicine would be willing to sell his diploma just like that.) Anyway, the fake doctor chose our country after he read a few medical books and journals that lasted him 11 years in the market. What really attracts attention is that the story carried by the newspaper did not talk about any role played by health inspectors in nabbing the fake doctor. It was police officers who actually discovered his sham act. The real catastrophe is that the doctor had caused untold damage for the past 11 years. One wonders how many people died because of misdiagnosis and how many were permanently disabled because of his fake diploma. It is a real catastrophe in the full sense of the word. For every job we have in the market, there are unprofessional persons with fake diplomas and certificates. Authorities discover them after they have caused a lot of damage in society. Even when discovered, they don't get any deterring punishment commensurate with their crimes.
