The disciplinary committee of the Travancore Cochin Medical Council (TCMC) has decided to recommend cancellation of registration of Shajahan Yoosaf Sahib, chairman and managing director of Al Shifa Hospital for Piles, Kochi.
The move comes after the panel, which held a meeting on Thursday, was convinced that Mr. Yoosaf had produced a fake Medical Council of India (MCI) certificate to register with TCMC.
The full council meeting on November 10 will take a final decision on initiating action against him. The disciplinary committee headed by Health Services Director Dr. R.L. Saritha had found that the MCI registration number produced by Mr. Yoosaf at the time of his registration with TCMC belonged to a lady doctor. It is learnt that she practises in Palakkad.
Though the committee had directed Mr. Yoosaf to appear before it, he had sent a lawyer to represent him.
The panel also learnt that even as Mr. Yoosaf’s medical degree was fake, he was using the title ‘MD’, that too without furnishing certificates of additional qualifications. Meanwhile, the committee will be recommending police action against him on charge of cheating the council.
Senior medical professionals and TCMC members said the title ‘MD Physician’ was usually associated with a bachelor’s degree from any Russian university, which was equivalent to MBBS here.
MCI stipulation
Earlier, it was a practice among those who qualified from Russian universities to use the above title.
However, the MCI has stipulated that they should add the line ‘Equivalent to MBBS’ to such titles.
Mr. Yoosaf had also claimed to have undergone internship at a hospital in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, reportedly coinciding with the period of his study abroad.
He had been running the hospital since 2002, though he registered with TCMC only in 2011.
The IMA panel was earlier told by two qualified doctors that they had been performing surgeries, and that Mr. Yoosaf only owned the hospital. The panel had conducted an inquiry into the issue a few years ago.
