For the Bad Practice investigation, journalists from OCCRP and partners in 45 countries confirmed more than 100 cases where banned doctors were licensed to practice elsewhere. It included doctors who seriously harmed patients — including sexual assault and botched surgeries.
A lack of transparency around medical licensing across Europe emerged as a major concern. OCCRP Investigative Editor Kira Zalan, VG Investigative Journalist Eiliv Frich Flydal (Norway), and The Times Investigations Reporter George Greenwood (U.K.) all described their shock at discovering how little due diligence there is by some licensing authorities — even when evidence of misconduct had already been reported by local media.
“When doctors were banned or there was a court case and they were convicted, it would be covered in the media often,” Zalan said. “It made us realize that a simple Google search by the licensing authority would have flagged this.”
In some cases, medical licensing authorities in one country already knew about the problematic behavior by certain doctors in other countries, but still took no action.
“The licensing authorities knew and licensed the doctor anyway, or said, ‘We don’t care about the findings of this other country’s licensing authority,’” continued Zalan. “In particular, in a case where a doctor had allegedly sexually abused dozens of patients, he’s still practicing.”
The investigation was initially sparked by Flydal, who has pursued this story for many years. As he investigated the story further, Flydal realized the issue extended far beyond Norway. But it wasn’t until last year, when he teamed up with OCCRP, that the investigation expanded in scope.
“I mentioned this story I was working on to some colleagues at OCCRP last year, and luckily we collaborated to unveil it. It was the only possible way. It couldn't have been done by one reporter in one country,” said Flydal.
The project eventually involved reporters across 50 media outlets and months of digital detective work. OCCRP’s Research and Data Team relied on dozens of scrapers, 17 Freedom of Information requests, and countless spreadsheets to uncover the information they needed.
The biggest challenge was sourcing the information. Across Europe, searchable registries of doctors varied widely. In some countries, databases were well-structured and maintained, in others, access was partial or poorly organized. In some places, no public register existed at all.
As Zalan explained in the briefing: “Even (with) the license data sets, in some cases reporters were told, ‘No, this violates data protection, privacy protection, GDPR,’ and so we still don't have some license data sets, in fact, around Europe.
“We were able to find what we found based on information that we were able to obtain from a handful of transparent countries, like the U.K., Norway, and Sweden. But we're still missing a lot of information, so it really is the tip of the iceberg.”
When asked about potential solutions, the three journalists highlighted the need for policy reform, a robust database of registered doctors, and a commitment to transparency.
“In my view it's really simple,” said Greenwood. “You need a public database of disciplinary matters. You need it to be in a consistent format, and ideally you need it to be collated somewhere internationally.
“The only way you're going to protect patients properly is with consistently published, open-source data on medical discipline.”
Flydal emphasized the need for a cross-border response, especially among European countries. “The victims here are European individuals living in their home country…But the solution transcends borders. The solution lies with the (European) Commission and with European organizations. So the question is: are they going to act?”
Wrapping up the session, Greenwood warned that unless changes were made, abuse would continue. “Patients are going to get abused, patients are going to be killed, because the medical regulatory authorities are not coming together with the political will to actually solve this problem.”
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