Doctor forged practising certificate

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An Auckland doctor, who worked without a practising certificate and forged one which he presented to clients, said his actions were irrational but he had been under a lot of stress.

A Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal decision made public last week found Ratilal Magan Ranchhod guilty of working without a current practising certificate in 2008 and 2009, and forging one.

Dr Ranchhod provided medical services to several rest homes, Auckland Prison, and the police through his business Housecall.

The Medical Council assessed Dr Ranchhod in April 2007 and ruled that his skills "were not performing at an acceptable level for a doctor working in general practice".

The council asked Dr Ranchhod to retrain and re-sit the College of General Practitioners' Primex exam to prove his competency.

He failed the clinical part of the exam in December 2008.

Numerous complaints about the doctor were made to the Health and Disability Commissioner by the time his practising certificate expired in December 2008.

Dr Ranchhod continued to practise despite being warned not to, as a lot of doctors were on leave because of the Christmas holidays, and there was no one else in his company to take on the extra work, he told Radio New Zealand

He forged the practising certificate several days after he had to stop working.

"At that stage I wasn't thinking very rationally, it didn't provide me with any added benefits, I think it was just desperation at that stage and it was an irrational act."

There were a total of 16 complaints about Dr Ranchhod over 11 years.

"If you put that in the background of how many visits I would have done in 11 years, a conservative estimate of total visits would be about 30,000 visits over that time, and the vast majority of those complaints were dealt with," he said.

"They (the council) identified primarily that the problem was communication, or lack of warmth towards patient."

He agreed, but said that as he was stretched and seeing patients day and night, "being warm to people might be one of the things that would go first if you were trying to practise safe medicine".

When questioned by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal about his forging of the practising certificate, Dr Ranchhod said it was unacceptable but he thought it would provide him with enough time to allow the Medical Council to reissue a legitimate certificate.

The tribunal said the forgery was a "very serious matter" and it found him guilty of professional misconduct.

Dr Ranchhod was censured, fined $7500 and ordered to pay $20,000 costs. He was also suspended from practice for two months, and strict conditions have been imposed on his return to practice.

- NZPA