A classmate's licence with his own photo, 27 years, more than 60 hospitals and a seven-year sentence: the Suwon case that also put eight hospital directors in the dock

In South Korea a medical degree does not allow anyone to practise. The graduate must pass a separate national licensing examination and hold a licence issued by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and under the Health Crime Control Act a hospital that employs an unlicensed person can be prosecuted itself. The Suwon case, in Gyeonggi province, shows how that system was defeated for nearly three decades because nobody at the hiring end checked the document.

According to the Korea Herald, the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office announced on 5 January 2023 that it had charged a man in his 60s, held in custody, with forgery and breaches of the Health Crime Control Act. He had graduated from medical school in 1993 but never obtained a licence. From 1995, prosecutors said, he worked as a doctor using a counterfeit licence, appointment letter and business cards. Segye Ilbo reported the method: he attached his own photograph to a medical-school classmate's licence and used it to obtain short-term hospital posts. Authorities said that over 27 years he passed through more than 60 hospitals. The charged period, according to Dailypharm, covered nine of them, including a general hospital and an orthopaedic clinic, from October 2014 to December 2022, with about 500 million won in pay.

On 24 May 2023, Segye Ilbo reported, Suwon District Court sentenced him to seven years in prison and a 5 million won fine. The judge said the crimes undermined medical order and could seriously harm public health. He had performed surgery and had earlier settled a malpractice claim. Dailypharm reported that eight hospital directors were indicted without detention under the Act's dual-liability provision for failing to verify his licence. According to Segye Ilbo, seven received suspended fines and one, with a prior conviction for unlicensed practice, was fined 20 million won.

Dailypharm reported that, although never formally registered, he was given an electronic medical record code under the hospital director's name, which let him treat patients and issue prescriptions under another identity. The Korea Herald reported that ministry-issued licences were hard for hospitals to cross-check with bodies such as the Korean Medical Association, and that prosecutors planned to ask the ministry about opening licence records to the public.

Two lessons follow for anyone weighing medicine abroad. A degree is not a licence, and no agent who promises a 'guaranteed' licence or registration is selling something that exists. And if a borrowed licence with a swapped photograph could carry a man through some 60 Korean hospitals, an offer letter or a stamped certificate proves nothing until you have checked the issuing body's own records. Verify with the regulator before paying, pay the institution, not the intermediary, and keep your originals.