Doctor caught for selling sick-leave certificates

By PMA RASHEED

The Gulf Today, 23 Aug 2010

SELLING medical leave certificates to several people led a doctor to be blacklisted and his clinic to be closed down by the health authorities.

Three specialist medical practitioners were also suspended from their service temporarily by the Ministry of Health (MoH), for negligence and breaching conditions as per the medical licence, said a senior member of the ministry.

Dr Salem Al Darmaki, Acting Director General of the MoH, issued the decision to take punitive actions against the serious violators of the employment permit.

Dr Amin Hussein Al Amiri, Executive Director for Medical Practices and Licences, said that the illegal activity of issuing false sick certificates had been practised by the general practitioner upon receiving bribes from his customers, who used the documents to escape salary cuts from their companies.

“The errant doctor’s clinic has been shut down, along with cancellation of his work permit and the case has been referred to the public prosecutor after reviewing the investigation report of the MoH’s medical licensing committee,” added the acting chairman of the committee.

“The action against the doctor has been incited after a government department lodged a complaint about the doctor’s deed of issuing numerous false sick leave certificates for nominal fees,” said Dr Amiri.

“The doctor had confessed to allegations of practising the sale of employee sick leave certificates to several employees and workers for several weeks, in contravention with the ethics and manners of medical doctors,” he elaborated.

“In another incident,” Dr Amiri said, “a laser specialist has been temporarily suspended from service for breaching the MoH licence conditions at his clinic. The specialist will not be able to continue his job, until the formal investigation into the case is completed.”

He noted, “A dentist also has been suspended from his practice in a separate case that the MoH’s inspection department indicated that he is always unavailable in the health facility.”

“The last case of punitive action is against a specialist orthodontist. Several complaints have been filed against him for offending the working permit conditions of the health ministry. His activities negatively affected many patients at his clinic,” Dr Amiri pointed out.

According to him, the case has been postponed until the next hearing of the medical licensing committee for the medical specialist.