The Nepal Medical Council has started verifying academic certificates of registered doctors and those who have applied for the licence to practice medicine.

The government body that regulates doctors and medical colleges in the country is coordinating with the Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) and the Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE) to verify the academic credentials of around 17,000 registered doctors. Also, each year the council gets applications from around 400 MBBS graduates for licensing exams that are held three times a year. The NMC certificate is a must for any medical graduate to practice medicine.

After the arrest of 15 doctors in the past month, the NMC has been getting many complaints of fake certificates of medical practitioners. “We will focus on individual cases but the verification of all the doctors will also proceed along,” said Dr Krishna Adhikari, spokesperson for the NMC.

To this end, the NMC is forming a permanent structure consisting of officials from the NMC, the HSEB, the OCE and the Central Investigation Bureau to look into the matter.

The NMC has been coordinating with the HSEB to verify the higher secondary certificates acquired from other countries including India. Dr Adhikari said a majority of the certificates of the arrested doctors were forged documents of the Bihar Intermediate Education Council (BIEC). To verify the certificates obtained from Bihar, India, officials from the HSEB and the NMC are planning to visit the BIEC with the doctors’ list.

The CIB has been investigating a case involving around 200 doctors at the NMC’s request. Fifteen of them have been arrested already.

Meanwhile, the CIB has arrested Pradip Kumar Gupta, who had obtained a forged higher secondary certificate from the BIEC. Gupta had completed his MBBS from China with the fake degree. Gupta, who had failed NMC licensing exams multiple times, was caught while he arrived in Kathmandu to apply for the test again.

Doctors released on bail

The Kathmandu District Court on Sunday released on bail 12 doctors who were charged with fraud. Court Spokesman Dhurba Upreti said the doctors were freed on Rs30,000 bail each. The CIB has sought jail terms of three years from the doctors who had forged their academic credentials.