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TDs have called for a full investigation after the HSE hired a Palestinian doctor who was suspended for alleged drug misuse even though the Executive’s CEO was warned the doctor had been prohibited by the High Court from practising medicine at the time.
Independent TD for Offaly, Carol Nolan, said that the case struck at the core of public trust in the HSE, and that accountability in terms of patients safeguarding was a key issue.
The Sunday Independent reported that Dr Alaaeddin Almassri, from Gaza in Palestine, had been suspended after an application to the High Court by the Medical Council on June 17 after he had admitted to “forging prescriptions on multiple occasions to obtain a range of drugs he said were for personal use.”
However, although the Medical Council had written to the HSE’s Chief Executive, Bernard Gloster, on June 20 to inform him of Dr Almassri’s suspension by the High Court, the doctor obtained a position and began work as a registrar in Emergency Medicine in Navan on July 8.
Dr Almassri was reported to the Medical Council while he worked in Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in Cork after he was suspected of forging a doctor colleague’s signature to obtain two drugs last March.
A number of Cork pharmacists noted the prescriptions presented were for doses which were “very high” or for a long period for one patient, the Medical Council heard. They included Viagra, for erectile dysfunction, the painkiller Tramadol and the nerve suppressant Lyrica, amongst others.
The doctor has admitted wrongdoing but said he was trying to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the loss of his sister and her eight children in Gaza following an Israeli airstrike in December 2023.
The Medical Council said the allegations included that Dr Almassri was “forging prescriptions using another registered medical practitioner’s stamp”, had been “self-prescribing” drugs that are “highly addictive” while using family names or names of fictitious patients.
It said Dr Almassri had attempted to pass himself off as another doctor when confronted and made “untrue” representations to his hospital. He had also presented “a forged prescription” even after his conduct was challenged by his employer, they said, Mark Tighe of the Sunday Independent reported.
Navan Hospital said that Dr Almassri’s had not disclosed that he was under investigation by the Medical Council and had been suspended from practising medicine. Once the hospital found out, his employment had been terminated on July 24 for breach of contract.
Local TD, Peadar Tóibín, who is chair of the Save Navan Hospital Campaign, said that the situation was very concerning.
“Forging prescriptions and impersonation of other doctors is shocking,” he said. “As is that the Medical Council took a case to the High Court and then informed the HSE knew of the suspension – and still Navan hospital employed him.”
“As chair of the Save Navan Hospital campaign I am calling for a full investigation of this case,” he said. “We need to know if any patients suffered any adverse treatment from this doctor.”
“This is an example of senior management of HSE not doing their job, the Aontú leader continued. “It also feeds into the view that many people have that the HSE is not taking Navan hospital seriously. We need a serious investment in our A&E. We need to regain teaching hospital status for our hospital. We need ambition for our hospital, not neglect”.
Carol Nolan said that the case raised key issues about oversight, public trust – and Ireland’s level of medical negligence claims she said were “routinely lodged” against the HSE.
“This dreadful dereliction of oversight strikes at the core of public trust in the HSE and its capacity to properly safeguard the rights of patients, which should be a key issue,” the Offaly TD told Gript, also saying a full investigation was required.
“While this individual case is jaw-dropping in its own right, we also need to widen the scope of any investigation that arises from it to capture the true level of medical incompetence in the HSE,” she added.
She said the fact that Dr Almassri had been hired after the HSE were put on alert in regard to his suspension raised serious concerns about public safety.
“If the HSE’s CEO can just walk away from this and put it down to human error or systems error then we may as well give up in terms of accountability. How can we be assured that dangerously incompetent and deceitful doctors are not literally operating in the organisation he heads?” she asked.
“I raised this issue last year in terms of Ireland’s outlier status on the issue of the pervasive level of medical negligence claims routinely lodged against the HSE,” the Independent TD said.
Information released to Deputy Nolan had previously shown that medical negligence litigation since 2010 has cost the State billions – with the annual cost of medical negligence exploding from €74 million in 2010 to almost €360 million in 2022, and reaching €3 billion from 2010 to 2024.
The Sunday Independent reported that Dr Amassri met with the Medical Council on May 28, when the regulator decided it needed to urgently refer the case to the High Court because there was a “very serious and immediate risk to public safety in this case”.
The Medical Council said it was concerned about “very serious probity issues” raised and had real concern that Dr Almassri was “suffering a relevant medical disability” which led to “significant patient safety and public safety issues”.
If the allegations are upheld, the doctor was likely to have his licence to practise “cancelled” or a prohibition put in place for a period of time.
“Not only is the alleged conduct extremely serious, it might potentially be considered fundamentally incompatible with the practise of medicine,” the Medical Council said.
Dr Almassri’s suspension had been lifted by the High Court on November 14 after the doctor submitted an affidavit saying he was receiving counseling for PTSD – and then gave undertakings which restrict his practice of medicine.
He has been looking for work in recent weeks – and has apologised for his prior conduct saying it was “completely out of character” and that he was “extremely stressed” and fearful about the prospect of having to return to Gaza where he had encountered atrocities. He said he moved to Ireland in 2022 with his family.
In a statement to the Sunday Independent, a spokeswoman for the HSE confirmed that Dr Almassri was employed at Navan Hospital from July 8, 2024, to July 19, 2024.
“Dr Almassri was on the IMC Register at the time of recruitment/onboarding. His position was terminated, when the hospital became aware of his suspension. A review was conducted at the time and no patient safety concerns or adverse events were identified,” she said.
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