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Irish Times
4 days ago
- Health
- Irish Times
Doctor found guilty of attempting to use fake diplomas to register with Medical Council
The behaviour of a doctor who sought to register with the Irish Medical Council as a specialist cardiologist using fake diplomas was 'disgraceful and dishonourable', a fitness-to-practise hearing has found. The hearing heard that had Dr Amir Taherzadeh been successful in his attempt to be recognised as a specialist cardiologist, there was 'a very high likelihood of patients coming to harm' and it 'could well' have led to deaths. Dr Taherzadeh's current CV, on the website of a Czech healthcare provider, lists him as having previously worked at a string of Irish hospitals including St James' , the Mater , Blackrock Clinic and, up to three years ago, St Vincent's University and Private Hospital . At the hearing, it was suggested he was not working in Ireland at the time of his application but had signalled his intention to return and would have been expected to quickly get a job in line with the specialist qualification. READ MORE Dr Taherzadeh – who did not attend Tuesday's hearing, during which his address was given as Iran – had faced four counts of professional misconduct. These related to the submission of false diplomas in support of his application in 2022 to move from the Irish Medical Council's general division to its specialist division. He claimed to have a specialist qualification in cardiology that came from Charles University in Prague. However, during two earlier days of evidence, the fitness-to-practise committee, chaired by Ronan Quirke, heard from university officials as well the Czech Ministry of Health that the documents provided by Dr Taherzadeh were false and the numbers on them corresponded to an award to a different doctor of a qualification in gynaecology and obstetrics. Credible and compelling evidence had been provided to the committee, to the effect that the formats of the documents were either incorrect for 2022 or contained the wrong signatures, Mr Quirke said. The committee also heard evidence that Dr Taherzadeh only obtained the qualification he was claiming to have in 2022 in December 2024 – having previously been declined permission to sit the required exam on one occasion, then subsequently allowed to sit it only to fail to complete it. When challenged on foot of the Irish Medical Council's initial inability to verify the diplomas he had provided, Mr Quirke said the evidence was that Dr Taherzadeh adopted 'an argumentative position with the Medical Council'. [ Taoiseach: Hip dysplasia controversy should be referred to Medical Council Opens in new window ] 'In no way did the registrant take any responsibility for the documentation other than to blame the authorities in the Czech Republic. 'The committee is satisfied that the registrant knowingly misled the medical council as to his educational status and as to his entitlement to be registered on the specialist division.' The committee heard Dr Taherzadeh also claimed he had at one stage been arrested in Ireland and deported to Iran, where his medical qualifications had been suspended for a year because he had treated non-Muslim patients. However, the committee heard evidence from Garda Det Insp Michael Griffin that Ireland does not deport people to Iran and would not have done so in the case of Dr Taherzadeh as he was believed to hold Dutch citizenship. Mr Quirke said the claim was 'an example of the casual approach adopted by the registrant in relation to the veracity of factual assertions made by him'. [ Frustration in Government over continual revelations from CHI Opens in new window ] He said consultant cardiologist Prof Jim O'Neill had told the committee 'that had the application been successful, the potential consequences for the public could well have been lethal'. A successful registration of the qualification would have given Dr Taherzadeh the 'opportunity to operate independently, to supervise juniors and treat patients', in a manner he knew he was not qualified to do. His behaviour was described as 'inherently dishonest'. The four charges were found to be proven and the meeting was adjourned to allow an opportunity for submissions to be made regarding appropriate sanctions.
Irish Examiner
19-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Examiner
Suzanne Crowe: People with severe mental illness will be failed by proposed new law
My mother reminded me recently of a warm summer's evening when I was a child, when the neighbour's son Mark jumped over our garden wall and ran straight through our house, with two gardaí chasing him. Mark was in his early 20s and had schizophrenia. Every year or so he became acutely mentally ill. That night he howled and tore at his hair as the guards restrained him. He didn't go easy, and we were frightened of the man we knew as a gentle character. He needed involuntary admission to hospital and treatment. A few months later, he was back in our housing estate, peaceably mowing lawns for a few quid. Life was difficult for Mark's parents when he was sick, the worry etched deep on their faces. The Mental Health Bill 2024 is beginning Oireachtas committee stage, for debate and amendments. It offers lots of innovation, with a clear clinical and legal framework for mental healthcare, including the management of children in approved centres. Inexplicably, however, it drops the ball for seriously sick people like Mark. Significant mental illness is a world away from the ebb and flow of mood and distress experienced by most of the population. Services for the mental health of most people do not require such tight regulation or legislation, as the person feeling unwell mostly understands their poor health and is actively asking for help. They can advocate for their human rights, including their right to be treated when they are sick. People with psychosis don't know they are ill A relatively small number of people, like Mark, suffer from terrifying delusions, hallucinations where they see things that are not real, and voices telling them horrible things. Or have episodes of mania where they run through the streets in the dead of night, handing away their possessions and scribbling furious letters to hundreds of people known and unknown. The ripple effects on a person affected, their family, their community, and emergency services are terrible. A subtle but critically important difference between a distressed man with crippling depression and a man with delusions of torturing demons often amounts to one key detail: Insight. Irish Medical Council president and consultant paediatric intensivist and anaesthesiologist Suzanne Crowe. Picture: Moya Nolan Psychosis robs the sick person of any insight into their illness. They cannot ask for treatment because although they are suffering beyond all pain that we can comprehend, they do not know that they are sick. And that their demons are treatable. In medicine, there are only a small number of people who are unable to ask for treatment, including those experiencing psychosis. Knowing how they would wish to be treated is helpful, which is why Mark's parents could support his involuntary treatment, as they knew he was happiest when he was well. The Mental Health Bill, if enacted in its current form, will mean that Mark can still be detained without his consent — but in his active psychotic state he cannot be treated if he says that he does not want treatment. A young man who believes he is being monitored by special agents or evil scientists intent on draining his blood, is unlikely to accept treatment from the doctors who have assessed him. The psychiatrist who wants to treat Mark will have to make an application to a circuit court judge for permission to treat Mark against his will — but not for the detention itself. Unlike those suffering from most mental illnesses or physical ailments, people with psychosis are unaware they are sick, let alone how ill they are. Stock picture Mental Health Bill creates a bizarre anomaly Bizarrely, a situation is created by this proposed new legislation where the doctors are detaining, and the judges are treating. Going to court for permission to treat will add to the legal complexity for patients, families, and staff, and increase legal costs. If the judge allows the treatment to go ahead, the care plan must then be agreed with the minister for health — an Orwellian development that sees medical care directed by politicians. Even if the health minister were a doctor — as has happened — it is still an unprecedented degree of control over the medical care of any person. Why are the mentally sick and vulnerable being singled out for this political influence? Psychosis robs patients of their autonomy It appears that the care of severely sick people is being bound up in these legislative chains because of a positive intention to better protect their human rights, particularly the right to choose to decline medical treatment. Autonomy over our lives is a core human right. One of the key things to understand about people experiencing psychosis is that their capacity to comprehend their illness is robbed by the illness itself. Picture: iStock When the capacity to comprehend your illness is robbed by the illness itself, autonomy is eroded by the illness as choices, risks, and benefits may not be understood either. Early treatment assists the sick person to regain their autonomy, in addition to protecting their right to dignity, respect, access to healthcare, and the avoidance of cruel or degrading treatment. Leaving a person psychotic and untreated is degrading and avoidable and I don't believe any of us would want that for ourselves or our loved ones. Current act respects patients' rights There is no doubt that in the past there were plenty of situations where autonomy and other human rights have not been respected in the context of psychiatric illness. However, the current Mental Health Act 2001 — with mental health tribunals and the oversight of the Mental Health Commission — has been effective in ensuring that patients who are admitted and treated without their consent, have their care reviewed by an independent psychiatrist within days of their admission, and have access to an appeals process. Other countries, such as the US, which have adopted laws which prohibit involuntary treatment, have seen seriously mentally ill people drift on to the streets, unable to engage with social services or benefits. A shopping trolley filled with cardboard boxes and belongings, or a prison cell, become their only home. It is timely treatment that restores people like Mark to better health, sending him home rather than risking arrest and imprisonment. Acute mental illness intervention and care undoubtably requires a complete overhaul, with significant investment in community mental health teams, crisis intervention services, and holistic assessment separate from A&E — it doesn't need this bill as it is currently drafted. Mental health remains a chronically underfunded part of healthcare, receiving 5.6% of our health budget in 2024 despite a Sláintecare commitment to increase it to 10%. To compound this ambivalent funding approach to such vulnerable people with a piece of legislation which holds the prospect of limiting care further is illogical and cruel. Listen to parents who beg for intervention Too often in intensive care, I have admitted young people who have tried to take their own lives. Often their admission, and sometimes their death, is accompanied by harrowing parental accounts of how they begged for their sick loved one to be involuntarily treated for their mental illness. The loss of human potential is heartbreaking. To admit and not promptly treat denies the person their right to return to health. This incomprehensible flaw in the proposed bill needs urgent amendment. Suzanne Crowe is a consultant in paediatric intensive care and president of the Medical Council
