A doctor who lacked basic medical knowledge, including how to perform injections, has been removed from the Irish register four years after he was struck off in Norway.
Ophthalmologist Gavriel Simha Furedi obtained his Irish licence in January 2021 shortly after formal complaints were first made about him by colleagues in a Norwegian hospital.
He was suspended by Norwegian authorities in June 2021 and permanently struck off in that country in December 2021.
However, he remained able to practise medicine in Ireland until May 2023 when the Irish High Court issued an interim suspension order, internal documents show.
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He has now been permanently removed from the Irish medical register and is forbidden from practising in Ireland. It comes two years after authorities here suspended him pending their own investigation.
Dr Furedi’s registration in Ireland was highlighted in October as part of an investigation by The Irish Times, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and 50 other media outlets around the world.
The investigation found many doctors are easily able to obtain or retain a licence to practise in one country after being accused of or found guilty of serious medical misconduct in another.
Documents showed the Norwegian medical authority found Dr Furedi had “limited understanding” of sterility procedures and that attempts to train him in administering injections “have not been successful”.
He often misinterpreted scans, something which could result in permanent vision impairment, and did not understand “common words and expressions that a doctor or patient is expected to know”, it found.
The Irish Medical Council’s investigation into the doctor was delayed for several years by the Irish authorities’ inability to obtain certain documents relating to the case from their Norwegian counterparts.
“The complaints process relating to Dr Furedi has completed,” a spokesman for the Medical Council said. “Dr Furedi is no longer registered with the Medical Council and as such he is not entitled to practise medicine in Ireland.”
However, the doctor remains registered to practise in his native Romania, where it is understood he works in a private clinic in Bucharest.
This is despite the Romanian medical regulator requesting and being sent details of the investigation into the doctor.
Dr Furedi is the second doctor to face action following the Irish Times reporting. Dr Asif Ali, who had been able to practise medicine in Ireland despite being under sanction in the UK for 18 months, has also now been suspended by Irish officials pending further inquiries.
He was one of 11 practitioners identified who faced serious sanctions in the UK and yet remained registered to practise in Ireland.
Another 17 doctors were found to have been struck off or sanctioned in Ireland but able to continue practising overseas.
The Irish Medical Council has said proper procedures were followed in all cases.
Dr Furedi has been contacted for comment.
