BOGUS DOCTORS

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11686, 26 November 1923, Page 7

BOGUS DOCTORS

AMAZING REVELATIONS AT LEAST 200 PATIENTS IN ONE STATE DIE SUSPICIOUSLY, VICTIMS OF FRAUD. . Bv Telegraph —Press Assn.— Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Association (Received November 26, 0.10 a.m.) NEW YORK, November 25. As the authorities widen the intensity of their investigations into the operations of bogus physicians deplorable details are revealed. The Connecticut Skate Health Department after examining recent death certificates and investigating the circumstances of the deaths, declares that at least 200 patients of impostor pliysicia-ns in this State alone died most suspiciously. One practitioner had six deaths within a few months, killin'g one patient with an overdose of ether when attempting a minor operation. CHARGE OF MANSLAUGHTER. The authorities estimate that possibly 12,000 patients of bogus- doctors have died in the past five years throughout the country. Three such practitioners, in Hartford and New York, for whom warrants charging them with manslaughter have been listed, have fled, it is believed to Canada. The owners of the Kansas City College and the College of Missouri sold diplomas on an organised wide-reaching bribery system, by which many officials in many States received large sums of money for issuinlg illegally the documents necessary to enable the impostors to practise medicine. DIPLOMAS FOR CASH. A scandal involving physicians in nearly every State of the Union was disclosed early this month as the result of an investigation of a medical college operating in Kansas City, which sold diplomas for cash instead of granting them after the completion of a fixed course of study. Graduates, numbering probably 25,000 thereupon assumed residence in various States. Many cases are reported of Bending substitutes to take the State examinations, which are necessary before a physician can obtain a license to practise. In this way men were able to become accredited physicians.