When Sanjay Singh arrived at the Ambah Civil Hospital on May 30, other doctors thought they’d mentor him on the job to make up for his weak grasp over medicine.
“We thought he wasn’t a bright student back in college. And were happy a new doctor was here to relieve the burden on us,” said D.S. Yadav, seniormost at the hospital, 35 km from Morena.
Little did they realise that Sanjay, 27, of Gospur village, who gave consultations to patients six days a week for five months eight days at the outpatient department, was just a Class XII pass, pretending to be a doctor, “MBBS” and “pursuing MD”.
“He told us he was weak in studies, but had dreamt of becoming a doctor,” said Atul Singh, Ambah police station in-charge. The police recently arrested him, weeks after he went missing on November 8, the day Dr. Yadav asked to see original copies of his degree certificates.
For four-five months before briefly living his dream, Sanjay went around the Morena district hospital, wearing a stethoscope, occupying any empty chamber he came across to see patients. Befriending a compounder there, he learnt the basics of medicine - diagnosing cough and cold, writing prescriptions and referring patients to the secondary care and even leafed through a guide book.
‘No mistreatment’
“He often asked other doctors for advice. Thankfully, we didn’t come across a case of mistreatment or misdiagnosis because of him,” said Dr. Yadav.
But his ticket to Ambah was a transfer order from Morena to Tikamgarh of another doctor, Sanjay Ahirwar. “He took a printout of the transfer order, changed the name, the location and put a false stamp, and took it to the civil hospital, where the doctor incharge didn’t even verify the documents,” said Mr. Singh.
“His purported experience at the Morena hospital didn’t raise doubts. So, I checked only his application and transfer order,” said Dr. Yadav.
When asked about salary, Sanjay said he received it in his bank account every month. That rang alarm bells. “I had not even cleared his papers, so how could he get paid already?” said Dr. Yadav, who verified the original transfer order online, and approached the police.
With a 50% shortfall of doctors at the hospital, around 700-800 patients visit the OPD, managed by three general physicians, every day. “Being on the job for 15 years, I see 400 patients on an average every day and he took advantage of the rush,” said Dr. Yadav. And during his stint there, Sanjay gave consultations more than 26,000 times, some to first-time patients, rest follow-ups.
“We have no idea about such a case,” P.K. Chaturvedi, Joint Director, Health Department, told The Hindu , which had to explain to him the case.
No action
No action has been taken against officials responsible so far. The Morena Collector and the Chief Medical Health Officer didn’t respond to phone calls for a comment.
The police have registered a case under Sections 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (Forging a document), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471(Using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code.
