Paris (AFP)

A young doctor from Ile-de-France who signed a tribune against homeopathy was sentenced to a three-month suspended work suspension and nine others received a reprimand from their disciplinary body for "non-fraternity", a severity which provoked the " anger "and the" misunderstanding "of the FakeMed collective that supports them.

This decision "does not represent a defense of the honor of the profession" of doctor "but a defense of corporatism", reacted to AFP Mathias Wargon, emergency doctor in Saint-Denis, who is one of those who received a blame.

Mathieu Van Dessel, general practitioner in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine) and treasurer of the FakeMed collective, was given the rare sanction of a suspended three-month suspension of practice, while the nine other doctors who had appeared with him on December 17, whose Mathias Wargon (also husband of Secretary of State Emmanuelle Wargon), Marion Lagneau and Pierre de Brémond d'Ars, received a reprimand.

The forum against homeopathy and other "alternative medicines", published in March 2018 in Le Figaro, "by the excessive form it adopted, testifies to the violation of the duty of brotherhood and is of a nature to discredit the profession ", argues the disciplinary chamber of the Order of doctors of Ile-de-France, in the decision made Tuesday against Dr Wargon, that AFP consulted.

"Under pretexts of ethics, we privilege doctors whose treatment effectiveness is not proven, in front of young doctors practicing in medical deserts", criticizes Dr. Wargon, always saying "very proud" to have signed the platform in question.

This column signed by 124 health professionals criticized in particular "charlatans of all kinds who seek the moral support of the title of doctor to promote false therapies with illusory effectiveness" and regretted that "the Order of Physicians tolerates practices disagree with its own Code of Ethics. "

Its publication had relaunched the debate on the reimbursement of homeopathy, closed last July by a decision of the Ministry of Health: since January 1, small granules previously reimbursed at 30% are only 15%, and they will no longer be at all from 2021.

This decision was based on an overwhelming opinion from the High Authority for Health (HAS), according to which homeopathic products had "not demonstrated scientifically sufficient efficacy to justify a reimbursement".

The National Union of Homeopathic Physicians (SNMHF) sued around sixty signatories from the rostrum, accusing them of "non-confraternity" and accusing them of the lively terms used in the text.

The authors oppose the public's right to "be informed" and the fact that their forum "is based on scientific certainties".

No such heavy penalty had been pronounced until then, among the twenty decisions already rendered in other regions: there were in particular eight warnings, three rejected complaints and a release, according to the Fakemed collective.

Suspensions are rare decisions, emphasizes Mathias Wargon, recalling that the last doctor to have received a sanction of comparable magnitude was a pediatrician promoting a supposed "homeopathic treatment of autism" (he had had a three-month ban on practicing in November, two of which were suspended).

The FakeMed collective also points to "audiences marred by irregularities", because a homeopathic doctor sat on the jury, and deplores the fact that the Order of Physicians of Hauts-de-Seine is associated with the complaint of homeopaths against Dr Van Dessel .

Convicted doctors can appeal to the national disciplinary chamber of the Medical Association.

© 2020 AFP