Failed warning systems, official complacency and a lack of accountability mean doctors who have lost their medical licenses due to serious wrongdoing can relocate and practice in different countries across Europe, and beyond.
Key Findings
- OCCRP and partners across Europe spent months digging through public records and petitioning national authorities for information about licensed and banned doctors.
- Reporters confirmed more than 100 cases where banned doctors were licensed to practice elsewhere, with the majority of them still working. The findings are the tip of the iceberg.
- Doctors who have seriously harmed patients, including cases of sexual assault and botched surgeries, are freely practising medicine in a different jurisdiction.
- Systemic flaws allow banned doctors to keep working, including an alert system for the European Union and European Economic Area that is barely or never used by some countries.
- Doctors’ disciplinary histories are often not publicly available, leaving patients uninformed and potentially vulnerable.
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