Wilmes, who has been suspended since the end of January, is the subject of an expert assessment procedure. His lawyer has described the appointment of a French expert by the Director of Health as a “very ugly” situation. The professor of orthopaedics is due to carry out one of the expert reports in the case. Both the lawyer and his client have questioned the independence of the expert. Luxemburger Wort first reported on the matter this week. In response to various accusations, the Ministry of Health issued a press release.
Three experts will assess whether Dr Philippe Wilmes operated on healthy knees. The outcome of their opinion will determine whether his suspension is lifted.
One expert will be appointed by the accused himself, one by the Directorate of Health, and the third will be chosen jointly by the two appointed experts. According to the Wort article, the expert appointed by the Director of Health, Jean-Claude Schmit, allegedly has professional links to one of the doctors denounced by Wilmes to the medical college.
That doctor is said to be Romain Seil, head of orthopaedic surgery at the CHL, as Wilmes wrote on social media. The appointed expert is reportedly the French professor Elvire Servien. Both Seil and Servien are well known in the field of orthopaedic knee surgery and have collaborated on scientific publications. They are also members of the European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery & Arthroscopy (ESSKA). However, membership in such international scientific societies is common among researchers active in the field.
The Ministry of Health does not consider this situation to constitute a conflict of interest. In its statement, it said that only a personal or professional relationship that calls independence into question would amount to a conflict of interest. The French expert had confirmed that she has neither personal nor professional ties to anyone involved in the administrative procedure or to any of the doctors who reported the case to the medical college.
The ministry added that the fact that two doctors, the expert chosen by the Director of Health and one of the doctors who made the denunciation, published a joint article ten years ago or belong to the same international scientific society has never been considered sufficient grounds to question an expert’s independence in medical science.
No agreement has yet been reached on the third expert, who must be jointly appointed by both parties. The French expert reportedly proposed a Belgian doctor who also has professional ties to Dr Seil. Wilmes’ lawyer, François Prum, is calling for completely independent experts to assure clarity in the case. If the ministry maintains its choice of Elvire Servien, he would have no legal recourse. The expert proposed by Wilmes and his lawyer, Dr Nicolas Hummer, has no relationship with the surgeon and is sworn in before the courts.
Prum has also criticised the definition of the experts’ mandate, as cited in Wort. The suspension was issued on suspicion of mutilation and intentional bodily harm through operations on healthy knees. The key question now however has become whether the procedures were inappropriate or unnecessary, accusations which allow for broader interpretation. “We cannot shake the feeling that everything, both the choice of experts and the definition of their mission, is headed in the direction of finding arguments to permanently sideline Dr Wilmes. And we will not stand for that”, the lawyer said.
The Ministry of Health, for its part, stated that the expert panel’s task is to analyse the facts underlying the administrative decision to suspend the surgeon. These facts are not limited to those that could be classified as criminally relevant.
Dr Philippe Wilmes’ suspension remains in effect for another two months. His lawyer expects that agreement on the three experts will be reached next week.
