Fake Nurse Busted At A Health Care Facility In Queensland

A man working in a Queensland health care facility as a nurse was caught faking his licence. Queensland Health Minister Cameron Dick admitted that a man had been working at Aurukun Primary Health Centre for six weeks at the expense of another person’s registration number. “I am concerned that the initial recruitment and screening for this person, which occurred in December 2014 and January 2015, did not reveal this issue,” Dick said. Following this incident, Dick immediately informed other states of what had happened because initial investigation revealed the big possibility that the man had worked in another health facility elsewhere.

The recruitment process of nurses in Queensland is handled locally. It was the payroll system of the department that has detected the fraud through some discrepancies in the database. This finding led to the termination of the man’s employment by the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service.

The incident has then led authorities to order police investigations, and a comprehensive clinical evaluation of patients who may be at risk. These interventions aim to ensure that not a single patient was harmed due to this happening. “I have instructed the department to commence a full investigation into the circumstances leading to this appointment. I want to know if this case raises any systemic issues with (Hospital and Health Service) processes that need to be addressed,” Mr Dick said. He plans to present this case, along with any other related events, at a meeting of the Commonwealth, state and territory health ministers this month, April.

Queensland had been associated with a number of frauds involving the health sector. These frauds led to the reformation of the health system, establishment of a national registration system and the centralisation of local hospital management. Examples of health fraud cases in Queensland include Jayant Patel, an India-trained American doctor who was convicted after hiding his previous malpractice to work as a surgeon at Bundaberg Base Hospital.

The payroll system that revealed the latest health-related fraud in Queensland was also faced with its own problems in 2013. The system was linked to several underpayments and overpayments, which was later found to be the result of the activities of a fake Tahitian prince named Hohepa Hikairo Morehu-Barlow. He was jailed for swindling the system of $16.69 million.

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