The heads of the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL) and the Robert Schuman hospital group (HRS) addressed the controversial case of orthopaedic surgeon Dr Philippe Wilmes during an interview on RTL Radio on Tuesday morning.
Dr Martine Goergen of the CHL and Dr Marc Berna of the HRS both stated that the central issue is patient safety, not institutional rivalries.
Dr Wilmes is facing allegations that he performed unnecessary knee surgeries. A key accusation is that he operated on patients’ cruciate ligaments without medical justification.
Dr Berna, the director of the hospital where Dr Wilmes performed his surgeries, was first informed of the concerns in early January via a letter from Dr Goergen. That letter relayed an internal alert from six CHL doctors who, having reviewed patient cases over recent years, repeatedly questioned the surgical indications for operations performed by Dr Wilmes. To date, more than 25 specific cases have been identified.
Dr Berna noted that Dr Wilmes had no prior negative marks on his record. He also clarified that while the surgeon performed a high volume of operations, this alone is not unusual.
Dr Goergen described the six reporting doctors as “renowned specialists” who are subject to an ethical duty to act upon discrepancies they observe to protect patient welfare. She stated the concerns were serious enough to warrant formal referral to the Medical Board, with Dr Berna in carbon copy. Goergen stressed the case is not about judging Dr Wilmes’s general competence, but objectively assessing whether the correct surgeries were performed at the appropriate time, a process she said requires neutral expert analysis.
Both directors explicitly rejected any suggestion that the case stems from competition between hospitals or between salaried and self-employed doctors. They concluded that the matter is solely about treatment quality and patient safety.
Dr Philippe Wilmes is scheduled to present his perspective on the allegations during the RTL Télé news broadcast on Tuesday evening.
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