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It took over ten years, at least four procedures and a letter from Guinea-Conakry to pinpoint what was wrong. And yet, for all that time, something had been disturbing at the Centre Hospitalier Louis-Constant Fleming (CHLCF) in Saint-Martin. Doubt hovered like an ominous bird over the departments. Until October 24, when the hospital announced the suspension of one of its practitioners, Dr Huidi Tchero. The orthopedic surgeon is suspected of having practiced for some ten years without holding a specialty diploma.
The first investigations began in 2012, according to a press release issued by the Agence régionale de santé (ARS) on Monday November 3, which traces the chronology of the case. At least, this is the date from which the authority began to be informed of the upheavals created by Dr. Huidi Tchero.
Around the same time, some ten years ago, an appointment decree issued by the State via the Centre national de gestion - the body responsible for verifying foreign diplomas - was issued. responsible for verifying foreign diplomas - put Huidi Tchero on the official list of hospital practitioners authorized to practice.
In 2018, the ARS was again alerted, "following rumors concerning a hospital practitioner orthopedic surgeon practicing at the CHCLF". The press release states that, at that point, investigations launched six years apart "would, to the ARS's knowledge, have been unsuccessful or closed without follow-up. "
A request for emergency suspension
Between 2015 and 2016, another institution took an interest in the case: the Conseil départemental de Guadeloupe de l'Ordre des médecins (CDOM 971). "When we receive copies of foreign diplomas, if we have any doubts, we can refer the matter to the Conseil national de l'Ordre des Médecins," relates Dr Catherine Billot-Boulanger, President of CDOM 971 and National Councillor for the Antilles-Guyane Inter Region, contacted by JSB on November 5. This is what we did concerning this practitioner. "
According to Dr Catherine Billot-Boulanger, the National Council commissioned an independent external body at the time. "This body contacted the Guinée-Conakry faculty (where Dr. Tchero is supposed to have obtained his diplomas, editor's note), which confirmed that it had indeed issued the doctor's certificates. "However, the specialty of orthopaedic surgery has only been taught at the university since 2023. "When an official body that works with the Conseil national de l'Ordre indicates that the diploma has been issued, the question of whether the teaching is indeed inculcated in the faculty doesn't immediately come to mind," Dr. Catherine Billot-Boulanger continues.
In August 2019, again according to the ARS press release, letters are sent to the Conseil national de l'Ordre des médecins, following information from the provisional administrators of the CHCLF. The Regional Health Agency explains that the Council is informed "in view of its prerogatives to verify the professional competence of practicing physicians". But the press release does not detail the outcome of this approach. "That's not true, the Council was not informed at that time," retorts Dr. Catherine Billot-Boulanger. Contacted, the management of Saint-Martin hospital did not respond to our requests before the closing date of this edition.
Things began to speed up in May. The Guadeloupe Council of the Order of Physicians referred the matter to the ARS "in order to launch an administrative investigation into possible professional incompetence", explains Dr Catherine Billot-Boulanger. According to the president of the CDOM 971, this is the result of a report from a group of doctors on Saint-Martin. In its press release, the Agence régionale de santé (regional health agency) states that X-ray images are at the root of this new procedure. ARS management can impose an emergency suspension on practitioners if it deems this necessary.
Several inspections and verification procedures
An inspection is carried out by independent experts. Analyses and interviews are carried out. But here again, the investigation fails to identify any potential problems. The ARS therefore did not pronounce the suspension.
At the same time, CDOM 971 called on a new player, the Conseil interrégional des Antilles-Guyane de l'Ordre des médecins, to set up a restricted commission to rule on the practitioner's competence. This commission is made up of one expert appointed by the Conseil de l'Ordre, a second chosen by Dr. Tchero and a third appointed jointly by the two.
The commission reached a unanimous verdict on July 4. The orthopedic surgeon was not considered dangerous in the practice of his specialty. "The Conseil départemental has appealed this decision to the Conseil national de l'Ordre des médecins," says Dr Catherine Billot-Boulanger. This has prompted the body to contact the medical school in Guinea Conakry once again.
On October 22, the certainties surrounding Dr. Tchero's professional career came crashing down. The University of Guinea-Conakry responded. The Dean confirms that the diploma in general medicine is real. But he declared that the orthopaedic surgery diploma was a fake. Two days later, the Louis-Constant Fleming hospital in Saint-Martin finally suspended the doctor.
A judicial investigation opened
If it's true that Dr. Tchero is not licensed to practice in his specialty, how did this lie slip through the institutional net for over ten years? This case raises a number of questions about the control of medical practice and the system for verifying foreign diplomas.
Elodie Rouchouse, Acting Public Prosecutor at the Basse-Terre Judicial Court, announced on November 3 that the case was being investigated as part of a judicial inquiry. "Any doctor convicted of forgery is of course subject to a complaint before the Disciplinary Chamber of First Instance of the Antilles-Guyane Interregional Council of the French Medical Association.This will be followed by a criminal complaint as soon as the investigation currently being carried out by the Public Prosecutor's Office has been completed, if its conclusions are positive", informs Dr Catherine Billot-Boulanger.
Dr. Tchero is one of three surgeons who take it in turns to provide orthopedic consultations at the Irénée de Bruyn hospital. This is part of an agreement between the Centre Hospitalier de Saint-Martin and the Centre Hospitalier de Saint-Barthélemy," explains director Éric Djamakorzian. For the time being, the establishment he heads has not received any complaints from islanders about Dr. Tchero's practice. But he performs diagnoses here, not operative activities," continues the director of Irénée de Bruyn. Interventions take place in Saint-Martin..."
For the time being, it is impossible to know whether the surgeries carried out by the practitioner may have caused any after-effects for patients in Saint Barth. In Saint-Martin, according to local media 97150, "a dozen patients have already filed a complaint after being crippled".
