Paris (AFP)
A pediatrician promoting a supposed "homeopathic treatment of autism" was sentenced to one month of prohibition of exercise by the disciplinary body of the Order of Physicians of Provence-Alpes-Côte-d 'Azure.
Doctor in Frejus (Var), Dr. Didier Grandgeorge was inflicted "a sanction of prohibition to exercise the functions of doctor during a period of three months, taking effect on February 1, 2020 and with a reprieve of two month ", according to the decision of the Disciplinary Chamber dated 21 November, forwarded to AFP.
The homeopathic pediatrician was sued by the National Council of the Order of Doctors (CNOM), which had lodged a complaint in January 2018, saying that "by promoting a homeopathic treatment of autism and having an attitude ( ...) hostile to vaccination ", Dr. Grandgeorge violated the code of medical ethics.
The CNOM initially asked the Var County Council of the Order of Physicians to contact the doctor to "discuss with him" the treatments he proposed, but the departmental body had considered that his professional practice was "exempt reproaches ". The national deontological authority then decided to lodge a complaint directly against him.
The national council relies in particular on the articles of the code of medical ethics which stipulate that a doctor undertakes to provide care "based on the acquired data of science" and that he can not propose to the patient "as salutary or without danger a remedy or an illusory or insufficiently tested process "(prohibition of quackery).
In a "therapeutic protocol" published on the internet in February 2016, Dr. Grandgeorge notably considers that autism is the "consequence of the pollution that invades our planet", including "pollution by vaccines often loaded with aluminum" beside "carbon monoxide pollution", "heavy metals" or some bacteria.
The pediatrician, member of the Board of Directors of the National Union of French Homeopathic Doctors (SNMHF) then proposes a treatment based on a drop of diluted patient's blood and homeopathic products including "homeopathic dilutions of vaccine".
"Such indications and therapeutics do not correspond to the data acquired from science" and "are cautious in not mentioning the existing debates on the effectiveness of such treatments," said the disciplinary chamber of the Regional College of Physicians.
On the other hand, it considers that it can not be blamed for having "put its patients at undue risk" or for not being "driven by the desire to care for the sick".
Practitioners such as the CNOM can appeal this decision.
© 2019 AFP