The whisteblower who unmasked bogus psychiatrist Linda Astor 25 years ago is shocked that a man with no medical qualifications was able to work at Middlemore Hospital this year.
File photo. Photo: LDR / Stephen Forbes
A police investigation is underway into the actions of Yuvaraj Krishnan, who faked a medical qualification to get a job as a clinical researcher with Middlemore Hospital's respiratory unit.
The alarm was raised by his colleagues who became increasingly concerned about his poor clinical practice.
Robyn Byers, who was general manager of health and addictions at Nelson-Marlborough District Health Board during Astor's brief tenure, said cutting corners in health recruitment was dangerous.
"As a manager, the first thing you do after the interview is go through the referee checks before you confirm the appointment. So I'm somewhat surprised it could happen again."
Polish-born Astor, who was hired as the clinical head of psychiatry while Byers was on leave, had "glowing references" from her previous employer, Hutt Valley District Health Board.
It was only after she was exposed as a fraud that her role in releasing a violent and insane killer from Hutt Hospital was revealed.
Leslie Parr decapitated his girlfriend Fiona Maulolo at her Naenae home in April 1997, a year after Astor scrapped his compulsory treatment without even meeting him.
Astor started work at Nelson on 6 January.
Byers said she became suspicious very shortly after meeting her and was already looking into Astor's background by 17 January.
It quickly became apparent that none of her references checked out - but Byers had a tough job to get her superiors to take her concerns seriously.
"I was accused of being jealous of her."
While she continued her sleuthing, she also took steps to keep patients safe from Astor.
She did this by flattering Astor that someone with her vast clinical experience was needed to give input to management.
"Because I felt uncomfortable and I wasn't sure about her clinical background, I asked her to be involved with me on many strategic management issues so she didn't have time to do the clinics and I kept her away as much as I could from our clinical folks.
"That being said, she still had contact with some.
"It was a tough few months."
Robyn Byers. Photo: RNZ / Tracy Neal
Astor was a skilled fraudster but she made a rookie mistake in leaving an application for a personal loan beside the office photocopier.
This revealed that her husband, whom she claimed was an international lawyer working in the Pacific, was actually a Wellington car salesman.
Furthermore, she had given his name as one of her psychiatry referees.
Astor's cover was blown, due to Byers and Nelson Mail reporter Tracy Neal, who had also been doggedly investigating her.
However, Astor had already fled overseas, on a DHB funded trip to France for a psychiatry conference.
That was April, the same month that Fiona Maulolo was killed by Parr.
Astor never returned.
It took persistence and courage to reveal the truth about her.
Robyn Byers agreed it was sometimes hard for people to raise concerns about their colleagues. Specialists wield a lot of power in the health system.
A Nelson Mail front page feature on Linda Astor, the fake psychiatrist. Photo: Supplied
At one point Astor attempted to disestablish Nelson-Marlborough's crisis mental health team because its members had challenged her clinical decisions.
"She didn't have any qualms about doing this, she was not a person who was anxious or worried. She was extremely confident and had no thoughts of the consequences for herself or others really."
So what kind of person impersonates a doctor?
"She was charming. She was a sociopathic person - who knows what's happened in her past - but obviously she had a personality disorder and played the world as to how she wanted it to be and was very skilled at that."
Even today, with a cursory reference check available with a quick Google, determined fraudsters still succeed in passing themselves off as doctors.
In 2015, Mohamed Shakeel Siddiqui was hired by the Waikato District Health Board after assuming the identity of a real psychiatrist.
Auckland University medical school drop out Zholia Alemi, 56, was jailed in 2018 after masquerading as a psychiatrist in Britain for 22 years.
And now there is Yuvaraj Krishnan - who was trespassed from Auckland University ten years ago for impersonating a medical student for two years.
Subsequently he graduated from Sydney University with a Bachelor Science in 2016.
Between December 2020 and Feburary 2022, he was employed by the Auckland Regional Public Health Service as a Covid19 contact tracer.
Te Whatu Ora Te Toka Tumai Auckland Chief Medical Officer Margaret Wilsher said a health science degree or other formal tertiary level qualification was not required for the role.
"The individual has never worked as a doctor or medical student at Te Whatu Ora Te Toka Tumai Auckland (formerly Auckland DHB)."
He started work as a clinical researcher at Middlemore's respiratory unit in February, before being stood down on August 1.
His contract was formally terminated on Wednesday and the matter was referred to the police.
Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand said it was "concerning that this had happened but it was detected and is being actively pursued".
A spokesperson said Te Whatu Ora had already been considering employment practices across the entire entity, which took over from the 20 district health boards from July 1.
"Employment processes in health settings need to be robust, and we recognise that."