A doctor is accused by a Muslim patient of refusing to treat her for discriminatory reasons. Serious misconduct according to the code of medical ethics.
The disciplinary chamber of the Regional Council of the Order of Doctors of Rhône-Alpes met this Saturday in Lyon (Rhône) to examine a complaint against a doctor from Isère for “refusal of care on discriminatory grounds”. In 4 weeks, she should indicate whether the practitioner has breached her ethical obligations.
The facts date back to June 2015. Substitute in a Savoy practice, the general practitioner argues violently with a veiled patient. After tearing up a prescription and asking the patient to leave, the practitioner adds that she does not want “veiled women in her office”. An altercation filmed, with the permission of the doctor, and broadcast on the internet a few days later.
For her part, the general practitioner defends herself and denies having refused to treat the patient by recalling that she examined her and wrote a prescription.
Last November, the Chambéry court dismissed the complaint. The patient then turned to the Council of the Order of Physicians. In front of her peers, the doctor repeated her remarks. Quoted by The Dauphiné Libéré, Dr Pascal Jallon, president of the Council of the Order of Physicians of Isère, considered that it was only a consultation which degenerates. “We are in the case of a consultation that goes badly, as it can happen to lots of doctors, and as it happened to myself because I refused to prescribe a sick leave to a patient. It’s a difficult, stressful job, and I believe that it is a matter that we want to highlight, ”he said, stressing that there had been no refusal of care since the argument had taken place at the end of the consultation.
Caring is an ethical obligation
In France, under certain conditions, the law allows doctors not to provide care to a patient if he does not wish to. “Article 47 of the public health code allows doctors to release themselves from their healthcare obligations for personal or professional reasons. But of course, there should not be the possibility of discrimination behind the scenes ”, explains to Why actor Dr Jean-Marie Faroudja. The president of the ethics and deontology section of the National Council of the Order of Physicians reminds the rules but is careful not to comment on this matter.
The doctor recalls that the doctor is required to treat all patients who come to him “whatever their origin, their customs and their family situation, their belonging or not belonging to an ethnic group, a nation or a country. religion, disability or state of health, reputation or feelings he may have towards them ”, according to article R4127-7 of the Public Health Code.
“Pastor said: I don’t want to know who you are, just tell me what you are suffering from”, quotes Dr Faroudja. And to conclude: “We try to reconcile care and religion but the doctors do not have to take care of the nationality of a patient, nor of his beliefs”.
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