Jailed fake doc involved in care of Doncaster woman which led to 'serious failings' case review

Zholia Alemi, 60, who was jailed this week for seven years, worked across the UK after claiming to have qualified at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, including a stint at Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust.

It has now emerged that Alemi, from Burnley, was involved in the care of vulnerable patient Annette Burt, a 56-year-old woman with learning difficulties, whose care led to an investigation and the creation of a new charter in a bid to prevent a repeat of mistakes made.

Former Doncaster journalist Phil Coleman exposed Alemi, leading to her trial at Manchester Crown Court.

Her status as a bogus doctor was exposed in 2018 by former Doncaster Courier editor Mr Coleman, who works for the News & Star in Cumbria after her conviction for attempting to forge the will and powers of attorney of an 84-year-old widow from Keswick who was one of her patients.

Officials at RDaSH confirmed that Alemi was involved in the case of Annette, who died from natural causes in 2014.

The failings in her care were considered so serious that the trust commissioned a major review, which ultimately led to the creation of Annette’s Charter, a “good practice” bible, designed to ensure the mistakes in her case are never repeated.

The review included confirmation that: “Annette was one of a number of patients seen by a person acting as a qualified psychiatrist but now known to be working under a false registration.”

In a statement, Dr Graeme Tosh, Medical Director at RDaSH, confirmed that the fake doctor involved was indeed Alemi.

He said: “I would reiterate that whilst Ms Alemi worked at the Trust, we received one patient complaint about the medical care she fraudulently provided to our service users.

“The complaint was a secondary part of a larger complaint about the overall care provided by RDaSH to that patient and led to an independent report commissioned through Niche (a consultancy company) and finalised in July 2020.

“This report refers to a ‘person acting as a qualified doctor/psychiatrist but known to be working under false registration. I am able to confirm that this was Ms Alemi. Ms Alemi was one of many staff members involved in that patients care during their time with the Trust.”

The GMC said: “Zholia Alemi was interim suspended in June 2017. In July 2017, we received information from Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust that Alemi had failed to disclose that she was under GMC investigation for fraud related offences when seeking to renew her approved clinician status.

“In 2018, Alemi was given a substantive 12-month suspension following a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing, relating to this matter. In 2019, Alemi was removed from the medical register.”

In its report, RDaSH officials spell out the failings identified.

Shortcomings included:

Annette’s learning disability was not taken into account in her diagnosis and management, and instead she was diagnosed with a severe mental illness – catatonic schizophrenia.

Diagnostic delays resulted in her losing her independence and suffering poor end-of-life care.

“Diagnostic overshadowing” prevented health teams from looking outside of her “assumed diagnosis of catatonic schizophrenia”, which drove inappropriate medication and care-planning

Annette was admitted to unsuitable and medicalised environments for months at a time causing her stress and reducing her independence.

Her family not being adequately consulted at numerous points in her care and, when they raised concerns, pursuing good quality care, they were side-lined.

Her family were not informed of the deterioration in Annette’s physical health. Staff put her vomiting down to behavioural and mental health issues which delayed access to the right medical care

Annette was viewed as having a mental health problem as a result of her resistance to care and prescribed a strong depression and anxiety medication. This sedated her with no discernible therapeutic effect.

She had denied 20 offences including forgery but was found guilty by a jury.

She was convicted of 13 counts of fraud, three of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, two of forgery and two of using a false instrument.

At the sentencing hearing Judge Hilary Manley called for an inquiry to be held into how the General Medical Council registered her as a doctor, when the documents she submitted in 1995 were "clearly false".

Alemi studied to be a doctor in New Zealand in the early 1990s but did not finish her course, however she managed to work as a consultant clinical psychiatrist.

In 1995 she forged a degree certificate and a letter of verification - with the word verify misspelt, the court heard.

Despite that they were both accepted as evidence by the GMC who registered her as a doctor.

Manchester Crown Court heard she "practised continuously in a very large number of posts literally from one end of the country to another.

The court heard Alemi had earned up to £1.3m in wages from the NHS, which she obtained fraudulently because of her falsified documents.