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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Jeremy Armstrong

Bogus psychiatrist with no qualifications treated 164 patients at NHS trust

A bogus psychiatrist treated 164 patients at an NHS trust, including one whose family blamed her for his death.

Zholia Alemi worked as a doctor for 22 years in Britain, despite having no qualifications.

Between 2014 and 2015, the 56-year-old New Zealander prescribed drugs 164 times at Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust.

One patient, Darren King, 31, drowned having a fit in his bath after being under Alemi’s care.

She had refused to carry out his ­family’s request for a capacity assessment.

Alemi's conviction for fraud sparked 3,000 urgent checks after practising medicine unqualified for over two decades (SWNS)

Dad Gavin believes his son would still be alive if she had acted. He said: “We wanted the bath removed.”

The Campaign to Save Norfolk and Suffolk Mental Health Services said: “It is shocking a fake doctor could prescribe medication to 164 patients.”

The trust insisted the General Medical Council carried out “appropriate checks” on Alemi. She was jailed for five years in October for fraud when she tried to change the will of a patient in Carlisle, Cumbria.

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