Dr Eugénie Izard had been sentenced in December 2020 to three months of suspension of practitioner for medicine for having made a report to the children’s judge concerning an 8 -year patient she was following, presuming mistreatment on the part of the father.
Le Monde with afp
The Council of State canceled, Monday, May 30, the provisional ban on exercising medicine inflicted by the order of doctors on a child psychiatrist in Toulouse who had reported suspicions of mistreatment to a children’s judge.
This case illustrates the legal insecurity in which doctors find themselves who report suspicions of mistreatment or incest, who can be prosecuted by the Council of the Order and by the parent suspected of aggression.
The D r
é> Eugénie Izard had been sentenced in December 2020 to three months of suspension of practitioner for medicine for having made a report to the children’s judge – and not to the public prosecutor – concerning an 8 -year patient she was following.
still continued for “interference in family affairs”
presuming mistreatment on the part of the father, the child psychiatrist had sent a first report in October 2014 to the public prosecutor, then a second report in March 2015 again to the prosecutor, as well as to the children’s judge in charge of the protection of the girl. The father of the child had continued, in 2015, the child psychiatrist before the Council of the Order. It was sanctioned, in December 2020, for violation of professional secrecy and for “interference in family affairs”.
“The only circumstance that this report was sent to the children’s judge (…) cannot, by itself, when the children’s judge was already seized of the situation of this child, characterize a breach” in the code of Public health, says the Council of State in its decision on Monday. “The decision of December 10, 2020 of the national disciplinary chamber of the order of doctors is canceled” and “the case is referred to the national disciplinary chamber of the order of doctors”, he continues.
“We doctors, need to report our suspected mistreatment to the judge responsible for protecting children,” reacted the D r izard, saying that he was “satisfied” on this point. “But I am always likely to be convicted of interference in family affairs, being accused of having supported the mother to have abuse recognized,” she said.
Some 160,000 children would be victims of sexual violence, mainly incest, each year in France. Subject to medical confidentiality, risking disciplinary proceedings, doctors are originally only 5 % of the reports of mistreatment on minors. The independent commission on incest and sexual violence against children (CIIVISE) called for the end of March to protect “protective” doctors from disciplinary proceedings.