Fake doctor caught ordering bloodwork, x-rays at Lakeshore ER
Woman was stopped by Montreal police on Tuesday after staff grew suspicious
Montreal police say they were called to Lakeshore General Hospital's emergency room after a woman was caught pretending to be hospital staff.
Police got the call around 2 p.m on Tuesday. When they arrived at the hospital, located in Pointe-Claire, officers found the woman in crisis and confused, a spokesperson for the police service said.
CBC News was told by a source that the woman was in the emergency department for at least six hours acting as if she was a doctor. She wore a lab coat, a name tag and a lanyard. The hospital says she was there briefly.
The woman interacted with patients, taking their names off of their medical bracelets and ordering blood work.
She even wrote requisitions that patients be sent in for x-rays. Police were called once staff in the radiology department grew suspicious.
Police say the woman did not resist when taken into custody, and she was sent for a psychiatric evaluation.
Hélène Bergeron-Gamache, a spokesperson for the CIUSSS de l'Ouest-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, says a person with "psychiatric problems" pretended to be a doctor and made two radiology requests from the emergency room.
"The person did not act maliciously and was only briefly in the emergency room before being intercepted," she said in an email. "She was taken care of quickly and now has the care she needs."
Bergeron-Gamache said the hospital's emergency department is secure, with a magnetic access door and a security guard.
However, she added, protocol for verifying the identity of doctors will be improved.
The news of the imposter at Lakeshore hospital came while a different woman was making headlines for posing as a medical resident in the Montreal area, but police say these are two separate cases.
That woman is headed to a Quebec court in Longueuil for allegedly impersonating an intern in medical clinics twice and in a hospital setting — donning a white lab coat and stethoscope while carrying out consultations. She could face nearly $70,000 in fines, according to La Presse canadienne.
As for the woman at the Lakeshore, police say she is now in the hands of the health-care system. A spokesperson for Quebec's prosecution service, also known as the DPCP, says no file has been presented in this case, and there are no charges at this point.
with files from Sudha Krishnan