Cape Town - Angry Khayelitsha residents have taken matters into their own hands, shutting the gates of the Khayelitsha Medical Centre following allegations of a bogus doctor operating as a gynaecologist at the facility.
Dr Ganes Anil Ramdhin allegedly operated under a fake identity and is facing more than 300 counts of fraud relating to medical schemes. He was found guilty of professional misconduct and suspended from the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) Register three times, according to reports.
It is also alleged a woman died after being operated on by him.
Speaking to the Cape Times on Wednesday, Ramdhin said allegations against him were “blatant lies”.
Zainab Ebrahim from Port Elizabeth who lost her mother a month after an operation by Dr Ramdhin said the reason she got in contact with him was because of a situation that her mother was undergoing.
“She was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst but we were not getting any doctor who actually was willing to give us surgery or assist us.
“So I went up and down looking for doctors. I came across his website. It had his number there and I contacted him and told him the issue and he said he can assist. We came to Cape Town. When he did the ultra scan he said the situation is bad and ’we need to get your mother to surgery now’. Then he writes down his banking details and he writes down an address, the Khayelitsha facility address and he said we should meet him there the next day,” she said.
Ebrahim said they had previously told Ramdhin they have financial issues and the doctor kept on calling asking them for money.
“He said ’if you haven’t paid yet I don’t think I will be able to assist your mother’. We eventually made amends and paid him. He eventually did the surgery on my mother. After 40 minutes or so while my mother is inside the surgery he calls me in to see.
“He takes me inside to the bed, my mother is laying on the bed and she’s basically still open and he shows me this big ball that he has taken out of my mom,” recalled Ebrahim.
She said her mother was discharged within two hours after the operation.
“We had been renting a BnB at that time and she passed out literally two times. After that I asked the doctor what’s going to happen now, I kept on calling the doctor because I didn’t understand the situation I was dealing with. He was annoyed by these questions. He kept on saying you ’keep thinking your mother is the only patient I have to attend to’. The doctor has blocked me since,” she said.
Responding to the Cape Times Ramdhin said: “What I am trying to say is there is a lot of false information out there; they are calling me a fake gynaecologist and alleging I’m not a doctor, they are alleging I’m practising without a qualification. People are actually confused. I am a qualified gynaecologist. I got my degree in 2010. I was in hospital practice for quite a while and I moved to Cape Town in 2014. I can even provide documentation that I’m actually qualified, ” he said.
Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) chair Ndithini Thyido said yesterday concerned residents had closed the centre.
“The community of Khayelitsha is taken aback by these allegations against this doctor. The KDF will be conveying a meeting with the doctor and the management of the centre on the issue early next week,” he said.
Lynn Moonsamy of the Rondebosch Medical Centre where the doctor is said to also be operating said yesterday they were aware of the allegations and “the matter is currently under review by the relevant regulatory authorities.”
HPCSA spokesperson Priscilla Sekhonyana said: “Dr Ganes Anil Ramdhin was formerly known as Dr Ganes Anirudh Anirudra. The complaint is the patient was diagnosed with cancer of the womb by Respondent and went to the theatre for a total hysterectomy. Inquiry is based on contravention of Ethical Rule 21 (a), (Performance of Professional Acts), which states that a professional shall perform except in an emergency, only a professional act – for which he or she is adequately educated, trained and sufficiently experienced. Precautionary Suspension Hearing has been scheduled for the 8th February 2021.”
SAPS Western Cape spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa said they were yet to receive a complaint on the matter.
The Khayelitsha Medical Centre did not respond to questions sent to them by the time of going to print.