A "particularly rare" sanction: two doctors, including the head of the emergency department at the Vendôme hospital (Loir-et-Cher), were dismissed following disciplinary proceedings initiated in October 2024 after revelations of sexual violence that had shaken the institution.
Charged in July 2024 with sexual assault and sexual harassment, the two hospital practitioners had been accused by eight women of acts sometimes spanning several years.
Four of the eight complainants said they had been victims of the two doctors, the Blois prosecutor's office indicated at the time, which was contacted in March of the same year by the hospital director after the denunciation of these facts by several interns from the Tours medical school who had passed through the hospital.
Disciplinary proceedings were initiated a few weeks later against the two men, who deny all the allegations against them.
Following this hearing and the subsequent disciplinary board meeting, the National Management Centre (CNG) for the hospital civil service dismissed the doctors on November 27. This decision is subject to appeal.
"This sanction, which is particularly rare, reflects the seriousness of the facts involved," said Clara de Bort, Director General of the Centre-Val de Loire Regional Health Agency, in a message posted on LinkedIn.
The measure "sends a clear message: sexist behavior, sexual violence and all forms of harassment have no place in the hospital," she added.
The ARS told AFP on Thursday that the disciplinary procedure was over.
"The voices of the victims and former victims have been heard," she added, "despite the ordeal that such a process often represents."
This decision is being made in parallel with the ongoing judicial investigation, while they are still under judicial supervision, including a ban on contacting their former colleagues.
In this case, in addition to these two doctors, three other people were also involved.
– Shock –
A third doctor, indicted in October 2024 for "sexual harassment by a person abusing the authority conferred by their position," had also been the subject of complaints. He could in turn be summoned to a disciplinary hearing.
Two female healthcare executives were charged on the same date with "threats and acts of intimidation".
All three had then denied the facts, according to the Blois prosecutor's office.
This affair had created a deep unease around the hospital, which was deprived of several of its staff in the middle of the summer of 2024, at a time when the hospital was already facing a severe strain on its staff.
The ARS had nevertheless decided to suspend the accreditation allowing the establishment to host general medicine interns.
The director of the Vendôme-Montoire hospital, Valérie Boismartel, shared with AFP her "shock" at the extremely serious events involving practitioners against whom no prior warning had been issued.
She described "an extremely serious situation, and grave incidents, including sexual assaults." A plan of measures to combat gender-based and sexual violence was subsequently put in place.
This case occurred in a context of increased openness about sexist violence in hospitals and in the health sector, thanks to the wave of testimonies from the "#MeToo Hospital", triggered by the accusations of infectious disease specialist Karine Lacombe against the media-savvy emergency physician Patrick Pelloux.
In addition to direct accounts of assaults, many caregivers denounced a "medical student" and "patriarchal" culture established in the hospital, which is favorable to sexist and sexual violence.
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