Tullow doctor is found guilty of defrauding HSE
Carlow courthouse Photo: Michael O'Rourke
A TULLOW doctor has been found guilty of ‘systematically’ defrauding the Health Service Executive through its medical card payment scheme. Dr Muhammad Waqas Rabbani (45), Tullow Family Medical Centre, The Square, Tullow was found guilty of 13 counts of fraud and not guilty of four counts of fraud after just over an hour’s deliberation by a jury at Carlow Circuit Court last Friday.
The offences were committed on different dates between 3 and 29 September 2018 and related to €2,229.72 paid to Dr Rabbani by the HSE the following month.
Judge Mary Morrissey directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty on three further charges due to insufficient evidence.
Prosecuting barrister Mark Lynam BL described the offending as “a systemic attempt to defraud the HSE” in his closing speech. He said that claim forms for treatments to medical card patients were created “for the purpose of tricking the HSE” and had never actually been performed.
Forty-eight civilian witnesses gave evidence over the course of the trial to say they had not received the treatment Dr Rabbani claimed they did, which included nebulisers, sutures, cryotherapy and ear syringing. Several also said they did not recognise the signatures on the forms as their own.
Dr Joyce Cooney, the principal medical officer at the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) at the time of the offending, explained to the jury that a person who holds a medical card is entitled to attend their GP for free. The PCRS reimburses the cost of providing the free service to the doctor through a monthly payment and other subsidies.
Additionally, doctors are entitled to claim extra payments each month, said Dr Cooney, for any specialised treatments, such as sutures or nebulisers, or urgent consultations outside normal opening hours of the practice.
Dr Cooney explained that doctors undertake in their contract with the HSE to submit only truthful claims, but that payments are made automatically “completely on a trust basis”.
An investigation into the veracity of Dr Rabbani’s claims began in October 2018 after the probity division of the PCRS raised a query in respect of them, said Dr Cooney. Dr Rabbani attended a meeting at the PCRS offices in April 2019 and denied making invalid claims, according to notes taken at the meeting and read to the jury. He said he had a busy practice after another doctor had resigned, with more than 14,000 patients, and that he saw up to 75 patients a day.
After the investigation by PCRS concluded, it notified the Medical Council of Ireland and An Garda Síochána. The Medical Council review was paused pending the outcome of the criminal case.
Det Garda Shields searched Dr Rabbani’s practice on Friday evening, 25 February 2022, and Det Garda Philip O’Sullivan subsequently began taking statements from medical card patients of Dr Rabbani.
While there were other employees in the practice â nurses who treated patients and receptionists who submitted forms through the PCRS online portal â it was the defendant who stood to gain financially from the fraud, said Mr Lynam in his closing speech.
He had also signed off on each form and admitted to making some of the claims late at night, the barrister noted.
Lorcan Staines BL, defending Dr Rabbani, made analogies between the eight years it took the state to bring the case and the slow pace of the asylum system and infrastructure delivery in this country. “It’s classic Ireland,” he said.
He described the gardaí as “dilly dallying” in the four years between the commission of the offences and their interviews with witnesses.
Mr Staines said in September 2018 Dr Rabbani had a large number of patients and was working long hours. He alluded to his client’s sound character in stating that the doctor was continuing to see patients at his practice in the evenings following the trial.
Mr Staines noted that the HSE froze funds due to Dr Rabbani after launching its investigation in 2018, meaning there was effectively “no loss” on its part.
Given the financial and reputational cost to Dr Rabbani from the trial, “he has effectively been punished sufficiently,” Mr Staines argued.
Dr Rabbani was remanded on continuing bail until 31 July when a date for his sentencing hearing will be fixed.
