Two months after having looked into the case of the Toulouse child psychiatrist Eugénie Izard, sentenced to a temporary suspension from the practice of medicine, after having reported suspicions of mistreatment of an 8-year-old child, the Council of State rendered its decision, Monday, May 30. An emblematic affair at a time when the advisability of clarifying the obligation of reporting of doctors in the face of situations of child abuse is debated.
The story begins in 2014. The doctor, who suspects the father of one of her patients of abuse, makes a first report to the public prosecutor. Less than a year later, she carried out a second one, this time intended not only for the prosecutor, but also for the president of the general council and the juvenile judge. The father sued her in 2015 before the council of the order of doctors before retracting. The departmental council of the order of doctors of Haute-Garonne then lodged a complaint against her before the disciplinary chamber. She first received a warning, before she was finally sanctioned, in December 2020, on appeal, with a three-month ban on practice, for violation of professional secrecy and for “interference in family affairs. “.
The Council of State rejects the argument of a breach of professional secrecy: in this case, the only circumstance that this report was sent to the juvenile judge cannot, “on its own, when the children’s judge was already seized of the situation of this child, to characterize a breach” to this provision of the public health code. The National Disciplinary Chamber of the Order of Physicians has “misjudged the facts”, considers the high administrative court, which cancels the decision and refers the case to the disciplinary body. A disavowal for the order of doctors, which nevertheless refuses to express itself, on the grounds that “court decisions are never commented on by the institution”.
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The main person concerned, Dr. Eugénie Izard, is delighted with this ” advanced “. “This will allow better protection of health professionals and children”, she hopes. Even if the procedure, as far as she is concerned, is not over. “I can still be sentenced for interference in family affairs”specifies the child psychiatrist. “I did what I had to do, I especially regret that the main concern of the order of doctors is not the protection of childrenshe concludes. I know lots of situations where doctors don’t report, either because they think the school has already reported, that another one is going to do it, or because they are afraid. »
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