UK reporter shows how easy it is to obtain fake nursing licence in Manila

fake nursing licence

The Daily Mail has uncovered what many have been saying for years – a reporter showed just how easy it is to obtain a fake nursing licence.

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Reporter Stephen Write picked up the licence at Our Lady of Fatima University in Recto, Manila.

The documents cost him 3,000 pesos in all and could easily land a job in the UK or the United States.

“I was even given a glossy graduation photograph to hang on my wall,” he said in a video accompanying his report.

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The video report also shows stalls in Recto opening displaying plastic covered boards with samples of various documents which they can produce – they range from school documents, driver’s licence, marriage certificates and more.

According to Wright, the stores operate “under the noses of local authorities” and “is helping under qualified sometimes even unqualified doctors, nurses and engineers apply for jobs abroad”.

“There could be little doubt that majority of nurses from the Philippines are properly qualified. But our investigation into the trade and bogus business and qualifications in Manila raises some disturbing questions about NHS [National Health Service] recruitment,” he ended.

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Fake nursing licence

The report began when the Daily Mail questioned the credentials of Filipino nurse Victorino Chua, who was found guilty of killing two patients and poisoning at least 20 others where he worked in the Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

In a statement issue by the Philippine Nurses Association of the United Kingdom, the group said that while there were doubts about Chua’s educational background, they emphasised that nursing education in the Philippines is rigorous and laborious.

The association added: “Fraudulent qualifications at all levels and branches are being fought not only by the government but by each respective professional regulator.

“Not only is the Philippine government but also its deputised branches and other private and non-government organisations are doing its utmost in its fight against fraudulent nursing qualifications and recruiters and employers who are often the first cause of opportunity for individuals to commit misdemeanor and fraud.”