A man who posed as a doctor and patrolled the wards of a Haifa hospital undetected for some four months was finally caught on Thursday morning.
The imposter would wander the wards at Rambam Medical Center in a white robe, wearing a chain that resembled that of a worker’s ID tag. If challenged, police said, he would give varying stories. Sometimes he said he was a pediatrician working in the pediatrics ward; other times he claimed to be a medical school student.
The man was only caught after someone who knew him sent a complaint to the hospital on Wednesday. The hospital’s security unit issued the man’s picture to all security guards and on Thursday morning, when he tried to enter the hospital, the guard at the gate recognized him.
Security personnel tailed the man until he entered one of the wards, donned his robe and presented himself for “work.” At that point, they detained him for questioning and then turned him over to the police.
The hospital said that, according to the person who filed the complaint, the suspect actually had studied medicine overseas. The complainant also said the suspect had posed as a doctor at another hospital besides Rambam. Police suspect the other hospital is Haifa’s Carmel Medical Center.
The suspect even posted pictures of himself wandering about Rambam on his Facebook page, Rambam’s administration said. It added that it has notified the Health Ministry and also opened an internal investigation into how the man was able to carry out his charade undetected for so long.
Both Rambam and Carmel stressed that the man never had any contact with patients or administered any medical treatment. Carmel added that it hasn’t so far found any evidence that the man ever did pose as a doctor there, but is continuing to investigate.
