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Quack scam may be far reaching

A syndicate of bogus Nigerian doctors operating across the country appears to have far more members than originally believed.
The discovery that up to 17 "doctors" could be part of the syndicate comes as the Board of Health Care Funders (BHCF) starts its own investigation into the alleged activities of the syndicate.

The board is an industry body for medical aids. 

And as the discovery of more bogus doctors continues, patients of the alleged bogus doctors have started to come forward. 
The syndicate, whose members were all allegedly operating with the same practice number, was bust last week when detectives from the Hawks raided doctors' practices across South Africa, from Limpopo to the Western Cape, arresting the alleged kingpins at their homes in Garsfontein and Matlala in Limpopo.

At least one of the quacks had managed to secure full-time employment at the BJ Vorster State hospital in the Eastern Cape.
The fear is that thousands of people may have been misdiagnosed and mistreated. One of the patients, speaking to the Pretoria News on Monday, said he could not believe that the doctors were fake. "When I went to the surgery and saw police around it I became really worried," said Lance-Corporal Thabo Thobakgale, a defence force member. 

Thobakgale went to one of the bogus doctors' surgeries in Atteridgeville recently to have blood pressure checked and to check to see whether he had diabetes. 

His visit came weeks after his seven-year-old niece, Angelina Thobakgale, was rushed to Medforum Hospital in Pretoria after she was first taken to the surgery.

"The family became very worried when Angelina did not get better. She was suffering from flu, but the medicine that the doctor prescribed did not make her better."

"We took her back, but the doctor told family members that she would be fine, but she did not get better. She only started getting better when we took her to Medforum Hospital."

"Up until today we do not know what medicine was given to her. For all we know he could have been killing her with the medicine," said Thobakgale.

Thobakgale's concerns come as the BHCF steps up its investigation, running alongside the police investigation into the syndicate.
BHCF spokeswoman and head of the organisation's forensic unit, Heidi Kruger, said initial investigation showed that 17 doctors' credentials had been called into question.

Stopping short of calling the group of doctors a syndicate, Kruger said they were made aware of the doctors after media reports about the arrests last week.

"With the help of the police we are now investigating how many of doctors are out there operating with the same practice number.
"Our investigations will see us profiling these and other doctors to see if they can be linked to each other. What we can say so far is that there are definitely more than seven doctors with the number being in the region of 17," she said.

Kruger said they were profiling doctors to get a true sense of how big the problem was.

Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela said five of the six doctors were set to appear in the Middelburg Magistrate's Court today on charges of fraud, corruption, impersonating a medical practitioner and indecent assault. 

Pretoria News
15 February 2011