Junior doctor who could not take pulse struck off register

A junior doctor who was not even able to take a patient’s pulse, has been struck off the medical register.

Asia Ndaga (31), from Adelaide Avenue in Coleraine, was passed as fit to work as a senior house officer in Letterkenny Hospital in Co Donegal last year.

She has been removed from the register by High Court on the orders of the Medical Council.

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A spokeswoman for the Council said that all other medical regulatory bodies that register doctors will be now be contacted about the order to strike off Ms Ndaga.

An inquiry held during the summer was told the African-born doctor, who was trained in Romania, could not take a pulse and had difficulty communicating with patients in English.

The Medical Council fitness-to-practise panel found her guilty of poor professional performance but the decision to strike her off was only revealed last week.

Ms Ndaga had failed an exam for a similar job in Romania. However, she was appointed as a senior house officer at the Donegal hospital on a salary of £33,500 before being dismissed after six weeks.

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Under EU ‘light-touch’ rules she was entitled to register as a doctor here without any test of her competency or ability to speak English as long as she proved she was qualified and had a clean disciplinary record.

She was selected for a training scheme and passed an interview panel made up of a doctor and HSE officials after applying for the junior doctor post.

An investigation later revealed basic checks would have shown that she had failed an entrance exam for a similar training post at a hospital in Romania after her graduation from Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest.

She was among a group of medics wooed as potential candidates for a training post here after the HSE went on a recruitment drive in eastern Europe last year.

It’s now understood that the General Medical Council in the UK invoked an emergency order on August 31 and suspended Dr Ndaga for 18 months.

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