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Recent incidents on social media have brought to light the alarming prevalence of individuals falsely representing themselves as qualified medical practitioners and giving medical advice.
In a recent case, a social media influencer who called himself “Dr Matthew Lani” and claimed to be a qualified medical doctor with a degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, who frequently handed out medical advice on TikTok, was revealed to be a fake.
Although real doctors are allowed to provide general medical advice over social media platforms, this is discouraged in terms of the 2019 Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) ethical guidelines, Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, spokesperson for the South African Medical Association (SAMA) told the Mail & Guardian.
“The guidelines call on medical professionals to maintain a high level of professionalism and integrity in their online interactions, while ensuring that the exchange of information is scientifically sound, accurate and evidence-based,” Mzukwa said.
Furthermore, he said, it is also recommended that health practitioners separate their professional and personal social media accounts to help maintain the appropriate professional boundaries.
The protection of personal information through the Popi Act safeguards patient privacy, ensuring that doctor-patient confidentiality is not compromised, Mzukwa noted.
“When engaging in discussions about specific medical cases, medical doctors should obtain informed consent from patients or their legal representatives before sharing any information,” he said.
The Gauteng Department of Health has opened a criminal case against bogus doctor Lani — whose qualifications were disputed by both Wits University and the HPCSA — and has distanced itself from him.
“Lani managed to weave his way into the system pretending to be in the employ of Helen Joseph Hospital,” the department said in a statement.
The Lani saga has been an embarrassment for the department, which profiled him on its social media platforms on Youth Day in June, saying he was a 24-year-old intern at Helen Joseph Hospital and also an HIV/Aids activist.
The Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU) says the department must take the blame for making Lani famous.
“The department has a long history of endorsing and employing people who are not suitably qualified and they often do not even bother to do the necessary checks to confirm qualifications,” the union said.
“They jumped on the bandwagon and promoted a fake doctor because they wanted to appear relevant.”
According to SAMA, an HPCSA crackdown on fake doctors had resulted in the arrest of 124 people as of June 2023.
A bogus doctor was re-arrested after escaping from police custody last week.
Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant Elias Mawela said Kingsley Leeto Chele, a Facebook con artist who targeted women by misrepresenting himself as a doctor or a pharmacist and scamming them out of money, had been re-arrested on Monday.
“Chele operated by contacting health professionals on Facebook and engaging them, pretending to seek investors while he swindled them out of thousands of rands for projects that did not exist,” Mawela said in a statement.
Chele was initially arrested on 2 October in relation to two cases of fraud registered in Sunnyside and Klipgat in June.
He managed to escape on 11 October while the police were cataloging his items at his residence and was on the run until his recapture on Monday.
SAMA has voiced its concern about the rise in reports of fake doctors, saying the practice “undermines the trust and integrity of the healthcare system, in addition to jeopardising the health of those who seek care”.
“They operate without the necessary qualifications, registrations and ethical standards, potentially causing harm through misdiagnosis, inappropriate treatments and unregulated procedures,” SAMA said.
The HPCSA provides an accessible database for all registered practitioners to enable the public to easily search and validate their legitimacy.
“Verification can be done by searching for the doctor in the HPCSA iRegister on the HPCSA website or by calling the call centre on 012 338 9300/1. Fake doctors can also be reported via email to [email protected],” SAMA’s Mzukwa said.
HPCSA spokesperson Christopher Tsatsawane told the M&G that there are guidelines that provide bona fide health practitioners information on how to navigate social media platforms.
“Qualified health practitioners are allowed to communicate and share health-related information with the public and other health practitioners but not to consult the patient on social media platforms,” Tsatsawane said.