Fake doctor worked in NSW hospitals for 11 years under NSW Health skill migration program
As the first image appears of the bogus doctor who worked for 11 years in NSW hospitals, it emerges that blundering NSW health officials brought him to Australia on a skilled migration program.
NSW
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A FAKE doctor who fraudulently worked in the state’s hospitals for more than a decade without detection was imported by NSW Health on a skill migration program and even claimed to have surgeon’s qualifications.
The revelations come as the first pictures of the fake passport, licence and hospital identification of Shyam Acharya, 41, who left the NSW public health system in May 2014 after working undetected as a junior doctor for 11 years at Gosford, Manly, Wyong and Hornsby hospitals, can be revealed.
Acharya tricked the Indian Government into granting him a legitimate passport under the name of Dr Sarang Chitale, a qualified doctor in India whose identity he assumed.
His elaborate and dangerous ruse was only brought to authorities’ attention when a Sydney private medical research company, which employed him in 2015, became suspicious a year later.
As NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian tried to shift the blame to the Federal Immigration Department for granting Acharya a visa, The Daily Telegraph has confirmed NSW Health sponsored the fake doctor. NSW Health recruited him from India to Australia in 2003 on a skilled migration program.
NSW Health continued to sponsor the impostor’s visa renewal over the next decade before he was granted Australian citizenship in 2013.
Acharya, who is believed to have fled the country, now faces having that Australian citizenship revoked with an investigation under way by Immigration and legal action pending by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
Sydney’s Downing Centre Court this week heard the AHPRA’s allegations that Acharya indicated he held a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians when he was in fact not registered.
A NSW Health spokeswoman strongly denied Acharya ever worked with the fake surgery qualification.
Acharya’s elaborate scam only began to unravel in September 2016 when his former employee Novotech, a private medical research company, became suspicious of his identity.
He managed to work at the company for more than 12 months on Dr Chitale’s assumed identity and even represented the company at an international conference in Singapore last year, giving a presentation on risk management.
The Australian reports the address featured a quote from Charles Darwin: “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
“In September 2016, Novotech management became aware that he may have misrepresented his identity and qualifications,” a company spokeswoman said. “Novotech immediately took steps to investigate and contacted the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and the NSW police (among others).
“Shyam Acharya did not have any direct contact with, nor any responsibility for, patients while at Novotech.”
In June 2016 a business called Creative Medical Communication was registered under the name Sarang Prakash Chitale at a North Ryde home.
Court documents reveal that home is Acharya’s last known address but neighbours said they hadn’t seen a man at the property in months.
NSW Health began investigating the case in November 2016.
Acharya’s longest and most recent stint was at Manly Hospital, where he worked from January 2008 to May 2014. He also worked in stints at Gosford, Wyong and Hornsby Hospitals since 2003.
Mr Hazzard, who found out about the scandal last Friday, outlined the process that led to the fake doctor exiting the public system. “In 2010-2011, the new system came in across the country, the federal AHPRA body ... so he then got, I’m advised, the limited registration each year under the new system,” Mr Hazzard said.
“But by the third registration, his luck ran out. He was no longer able to satisfy the federal body of his capacity to have full registration.
“You have three lots under the new system of being able to satisfy the federal body about your limited registration and you have to undergo all the checks and balances each year that are now in place. At the end of that three years, if you haven’t absolutely satisfied on every front, you can’t practice. This fellow lost the right to practice.”
While Mr Hazzard praised the current system, he said it can never be guaranteed that there’s no chance that somebody could circumvent it.
The Health Minister also said there was a belief that he had some form of training, describing the fact he did not have a number of complaints against him as “absolutely amazing”.
The matter will return to court in April but Acharya remains on the run.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the scandal was “simply shocking”.
“To know that he got through our border protection system on someone else’s documents, pretending to be something he (wasn’t) and of course we empathise with all those patients who were under his care,” she said.
“I can imagine what a lot of people in the community are thinking — how could this happen for such a long period of time.”
Minister calls for jail time
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard says jail time was needed as a penalty in the fake foreign doctor scandal and has slammed the $30,000 fine for his alleged deception as “woefully inadequate”.
“I am horrified that this fellow managed to get into the NSW hospital system,” he said.
“If we can catch this guy, he deserves jail.”
It is believed Shyam Acharya assumed the identity of Sarang Chitale to work in the health system from 2003 to 2014 at Manly, Hornsby, Wyong and Gosford hospitals.
While NSW Health admitted the fake doctor’s fraud went undetected for 11 years, checks and balances were far more stringent now than they were years ago, Mr Hazzard said.
Tougher penalties were also on the cards, he said.
“(Federal Health Minister) Greg Hunt and I have agreed … that we will both be pushing for jail penalties across the country,” he said.
“It will require all states and territories to agree, but I’m fairly confident that other jurisdictions would agree that $30,000 is just woefully inadequate.”
AHPRA has charged Acharya with a breach of section 116 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. The offence carries a fine of up to $30,000.
“His current whereabouts are unknown,” NSW Health deputy secretary Karen Crawshaw said.
— JASON TIN and ROSE BRENNAN
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