Highland health chiefs last night urged psychiatric patients from 15 years ago to contact them if they had been treated by a doctor now exposed as a fake.
Zholia Alemi, 56, worked for the NHS across the UK for 22 years with no qualifications. This included a short period in 2003 when she was employed in Inverness.
It has been revealed how Alemi was allowed on the General Medical Council’s (GMC) register in 1995 after falsely claiming to have a medical degree from the University of Auckland.
The GMC tightened its registration regulations in 2003 and is now reviewing the backgrounds of thousands of doctors who came to the UK from Commonwealth countries to check their degrees.
A spokesman for NHS Highland said: “This individual worked in NHS Highland in 2003.
“NHS Highland checked with the GMC as to this person’s eligibility to practise as a doctor in the UK prior to her work commencing and at that time understood there to be no issues.
“Having now been alerted by the GMC, NHS Highland will fully investigate what care was delivered. A part of this will include identifying if any complaints were made against her while she was working here.
“We would encourage any patients with concerns to contact our feedback team.
GMC chief executive Charlie Massey said: “We recently became aware that Zholia Alemi used a fraudulent qualification to join the medical register in 1995 and worked as a doctor until June 2017.
“These are serious issues and we are investigating them urgently to understand how this happened.
He added: “It is clear that in this case the steps taken in the 1990s were inadequate and we apologise for any risk arising to patients as a result.
“We are confident that, 23 years on, our systems are robust and would identify any fraudulent attempt to join the medical register.
“As soon as we became aware that she used a fraudulent qualification to join the register, we contacted the police and other organisations responsible for healthcare services in the UK.”