On December 17, 2015, Professor Jean-Louis Mégnien, cardiologist at the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital, threw himself out of the seventh floor window of his workplace. This suicide by defenestration had triggered a strong emotion in the hospital community and highlighted the suffering at work of doctors.
During the five years of an investigation carried out in the greatest discretion, the Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), the former director of the hospital, Anne Costa, and three professors – then hierarchical managers of the cardiologist – were indicted for “Moral harassment”. Two investigating judges on July 30 ordered their referral to the criminal court, we learned on Wednesday September 22 from sources familiar with the case, information confirmed by a judicial source.
The wife of the cardiologist had filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office, which had opened a preliminary investigation and then a judicial investigation on February 19, 2016. Several of the colleagues of this father of five children who had just returned to work after nine months of stoppage disease had reported that he was the victim of harassment by his superiors and that a warning about the suffering of this doctor would not have been taken into account.
Clan struggle and “dysfunctions”
During their investigation, the police officers of the Brigade for the repression of delinquency against the person (BRDP) unearthed accusations of clan struggle within the prestigious hospital located in the 15e district of the capital.
An internal investigation carried out by the management of the AP-HP, then a summary of the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS), seized by the Minister of Health at the time, Marisol Touraine, had identified “Malfunctions” and “Breaches” in the management of the conflict between Professor Mégnien and some of his colleagues.
The IGAS mission listed “Five breaches of unequal scope” in the treatment of the conflict which had started in 2012, the year in which Mr. Mégnien had seen him escape the post of head of department of the center of cardiovascular preventive medicine, which he considered to have been promised to him. Over the months, the hospital practitioner had gradually been the subject of “Medical isolation”, noted IGAS. A senior doctor at the hospital described to the World in january 2016 the ” descent into hell “ lived by his colleague, the nurses and secretaries of the service having for example been instructed not to speak to him.
In its report, IGAS noted the absence or delay in reporting and evaluating this risky situation, the absence of an alert from occupational medicine, the absence of a meeting with all the protagonists. or the “Non-structuring of conflict management” within the AP-HP and the university.
“Beyond a human tragedy, this affair is a sad illustration of the instrumentalisation of justice and of a relentless and unreasonable desire to want to penalize everything”, regretted Me Marie Burguburu, lawyer for one of the professors. “It is incomprehensible, the magistrates likened a head of pole of a hospital establishment to a head of staff”, reacted Me Bernard Vatier, who defends another doctor.