NMC grapples with 'legal fakes'

Published On: June 28, 2016 01:20 AM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, June 28: Nepal Medical Council (NMC), which is investigating the fake +2 level certificates of medical doctors, has been struggling to identify those who pursued their medical degrees through faking.

Two doctors were recently arrested while proxying in the NMC entrance exams for fellow doctors who had failed to pass the exams even at the 13th attempt. The arrested doctors had simply stuck their photos in the admission cards and the IDs of those they were proxying for. NMC, which is also the national regulatory authority for medical doctors, has described such doctors as 'legal fakes.'

"A lot of doctors might have taken their licenses by using their friends in this manner," NMC Chairman Dr Dharma Kanta Baskota said. He said that those doctors who sought the help of fellow doctors to get their practicing licenses might similarly have taken the help of others to pass their MBBS and intermediate and SLC exams also.

According to Dr Baskota, neither NMC nor the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police is able to identify those doctors who pursued their medical degrees through faking. NMC, CIB and the Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) have been investigating the fake +2 certificates of medical doctors who pursued their medical degrees with the help of forged certificates.

Out of 1,000 doctors whose intermediate degrees were probed, the certificates of 109 have not been verified by the colleges and universities which they claimed to have enrolled in. Among the 109 doctors who furnished fake intermediate certificates to study medicine, police have so far arrested 55.

Some doctors are found to be from the commerce and humanities background at the intermediate level. Some doctors who failed the SLC used fake certificates showing that they are brilliant students scoring distinction.

NMC, CIB and HSEB have been investigating the certificates of doctors for the last six months.

NMC is to probe the certificates of all 17,000 doctors to whom it has provided practicing licenses so