Santo Domingo.- In response to a series of complaints by patients and their relatives, Public Health Minister Bautista Rojas Gómez has announced that the strongest measures would be taken to penalize whoever is found responsible in the case of an alleged false doctor at the José María Cabral y Báez hospital in Santiago. He said that the case required in-depth investigation and all responsibility had to be attributed in a case that he considered very serious, “and that merits a penalty that sets an example”.

“We spoke to Attorney General Radhamés Jiménez Peña and the police authorities in the Central Cibao region, with the aim of ensuring that a situation of this kind would not remain unpunished”, he said.

The minister said that the first step would be to arrest the man who passed himself off as a medical professional, and that according to the complaints charged money for performing surgical procedures at the public hospital.

Rojas Gómez said he did not believe that the “false doctor” had performed the operations, but that he could have been some sort of intermediary with staff working at the Cabral y Báez, bypassing the bureaucratic procedures at the main state hospital in the Cibao region.

He added that the security chief at the Public Health Ministry, Colonel Odalis Santana, and other members of the ministry would be accompanying the police in their investigations.