A doctor's coat, no PMDC registration, no hospital ID: the man arrested in Lahore General Hospital's emergency labour room, September 2026

In Pakistan the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) registers every doctor, and a public hospital issues identity cards to the people who work on its wards. A registration number and a hospital ID are the minimum anyone examining a patient should be able to show. A September 2026 arrest at Lahore General Hospital, a large public teaching hospital, showed how rarely those checks are applied once someone is wearing a white coat on a ward.

According to The Pakistan Connect (18 September 2026), a man named Hassan Ijaz was arrested from the emergency labour room of the hospital's gynaecology ward after a gynaecologist on duty found him examining women patients. She reported him to the duty deputy medical superintendent (DMS) and to the police. He became nervous under questioning and was arrested inside the hospital. A case was registered at Kot Lakhpat police station; the FIR, as reported, states that he had been meeting patients and their families while pretending to be a doctor. He first said he lived in Shalimar Town; both outlets reported that he was later identified as a resident of Kahna.

Minute Mirror (20 September 2026) reported that when the duty DMS asked for identification and proof of medical credentials, the man could not produce a hospital ID card, a PMDC registration or any document showing he was on duty. Investigators were examining how he entered a restricted area, whether he had been there before, and whether he deceived patients or demanded money. Minute Mirror listed earlier cases: a woman arrested at the same hospital in December 2025 for allegedly posing as a doctor and collecting money from patients, and a man caught days earlier at PIMS Islamabad. The Pakistan Connect said the PIMS man had worked night shifts in plastic surgery, reportedly paid Rs400 to Rs500 a night by two postgraduate trainees, who were suspended for six months. All allegations remain subject to investigation and the courts.

The check that failed was the simplest one. Nobody at the door of a restricted labour room asked the man for a hospital card or a PMDC number; a white coat and a confident manner were enough until a doctor noticed him. The PIMS case shows a second failure: trainees allegedly hiring an unqualified man to cover their duties.

The PMDC keeps an online register. Ask any unfamiliar 'doctor' for a name and registration number and check it; a hospital employee should also carry an ID card. If someone in a white coat asks for money in a ward, report it to the medical superintendent. For students choosing a hospital for clinical training, how strictly it verifies its own staff says a lot about how it runs its wards.