📰 From the news · Impersonating a real college/agent
Ten years as an orthopaedic surgeon at Saint-Martin's Louis-Constant Fleming hospital on a specialty diploma Conakry says it never issued: the Tchero case
France lets doctors with diplomas from outside the European Union practise after passing knowledge examinations and being authorised by the health ministry, then registering with the Ordre des médecins. The examinations test knowledge, not the papers. A case on the French Caribbean island of Saint-Martin shows the cost when nobody writes to the issuing university for a decade.
According to Outre-mer La 1ère on 31 October 2025, Dr Huidi Tchero had worked for more than ten years as an orthopaedic surgeon at the Centre hospitalier Louis-Constant Fleming in Saint-Martin. A letter dated 16 September 2025 from the Gamal Abdel Nasser University of Conakry, Guinea, confirmed his general medical degree but said the orthopaedic surgery specialty diploma he claimed was a forgery. The hospital announced a precautionary suspension on 24 October 2025 after the departmental Ordre des médecins raised concerns, the regional health agency (ARS) confirmed it, and the Basse-Terre prosecutor said the facts were being handled in judicial investigations. RCI and La 1ère reported that Senator Annick Petrus had written to the health ministry in March 2025 and to the Guadeloupe Ordre in May.
La 1ère reported on 19 December 2025 that an order dated 24 November, signed at the Centre national de gestion for the health minister and published in the Journal officiel on 18 December, removed his authorisation to practise the specialty in France. The ARS said inquiries in 2012 and 2018 had led nowhere, the national Ordre had validated his diplomas in 2016, and at least twenty people were considering complaints. On 11 February 2026, La 1ère reported, the administrative court of Saint-Martin suspended the order in interim proceedings after the ministry filed no defence and did not appear. The Conakry letter said the diploma was false because it was only created locally in 2023; a letter from an adviser to Guinea's transitional council argued his earlier certificate was equivalent. He had been authorised on 22 February 2013 after anonymous examinations, registered with the Guadeloupe Ordre on 5 May 2013, and dismissed without compensation from 25 November 2025. The ruling did not decide whether the diploma is genuine, and he remains presumed innocent.
His knowledge was tested in 2013 and the Ordre validated his papers in 2016, but according to La 1ère the diploma was only reported as forged in October 2025, after an attestation from the faculty in Conakry.
For students, the lesson is that an exam pass and a registration are not proof that a diploma was ever issued. Anyone presenting a foreign diploma abroad should expect verification at source, and anyone relying on a foreign-qualified specialist should ask whether that check was done. Keep certified copies so the issuing university can confirm them quickly.
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This is a news-sourced case summary written by the TrustMBBS team, not a first-person account; see the sources above. They reflect one person's experience and are not a verdict on any institution. Report your own: Report a scam or tell your story.