ThosePsychiatrists, dentists and general practitioners –A doctor struck off in the Jura still exercises in Geneva
The authorities never communicate on the sanctions pronounced against health professionals. In five years, at least 18 doctors have been withdrawn their authorization to practice in French -speaking Switzerland.
A doctor and her patient in consultation.
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- Eighteen doctors have been banned from exercise in French-speaking Switzerland in five years.
- The cantons do not say why.
- Some doctors prohibited in a canton may still legally exercise in another.
- In Geneva, Pierre Maudet offers a reform to improve the transparency of sanctions.
Genevans who are looking for a psychiatrist do not have thousands of options: in the city with a jet of water, difficult to find a mental health specialist who accepts new patients. There is one, however, which seems to have room, in the city center.
His patients perhaps ignore him, but this doctor, if he has the right to practice in Geneva, has lost the right to do so in the Jura. Information is public and accessible on the Swiss register of medical professions, Medreg. This provides the main information about doctors, dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians and chiropractors. On this site, we can read that this canton withdrew the psychiatrist’s authorization in November 2023. Was it for serious facts, which could threaten the health of its current patients? Today, it is impossible to know.
Twenty -one prohibitions to practice in five years
In Switzerland, the cantons are in charge of authorizing and supervising health professionals. But they communicate only in a very fragmented way – even less clearly than what is accessible on Medég. Thus, we asked the state of Vaud, within the framework of the Information Act (LInfo), the list of sanctioned doctors. In 2024, out of 39 surveys opened by the Health Council following denunciations, ten concluded with a warning, and four with a ban on practicing (two of which are partially). The number of surveys carried out by this institution has been increasing since 2022. March 31, 2025, more than 80 were underway.
The canton does not communicate what was the specialty of professionals struck off. The information is however available in Medég, provided you know which people are affected. We used lists of doctors to consult Medreg in a targeted manner, a comparis page containing the names of practitioners who have been removed or refused authorization.
According to our results, the French -speaking cantons have pronounced at least 21 prohibitions to practice in five years, from 2020 to 2024. This number could be greater if decisions have escaped us. Some decisions are no longer displayed, such as the one concerning a General practitioner of training who has become a follower of naturopathy and shamanism. According to the comparis list, the authorization to practice was withdrawn to him in 2021.
Five of the decisions relate to only two people. A dental doctor was forbidden to practice in two cantons and a surgeon in three cantons (Vaud, Geneva and Friborg). Seventeen people, sixteen men and a woman, are therefore concerned.
A third of these doctors are psychiatrists. Nine are of Swiss nationality, and other foreigners – mainly French.
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Project for more transparency in Geneva
What do we blame these doctors? It is impossible to know, because the cantons give no detail. In Geneva, “less than ten” health professionals have been withdrawn their authorization to practice since 2023 and 2025, according to the cantonal authorities. “The reasons for withdrawals and prohibitions to practice are data to which the authorities only have access,” specifies Cédric Alber, director of communication at the Geneva Cantonal Office of Health. We cannot also communicate information on special cases. ”
In Geneva, a patient wishing to make a report can address the Surveillance Commission for Health and Patients’ Rights (CSPSDP). But he must be patient: in a report made last October, the Court of Auditors mentions that the processing time of a file is much more than three years. On this basis, the State Councilor responsible for health, Pierre Maudet, initiated a reform of the law on the supervision of health and patients’ rights (LCOMPS). “This legislative modification aims, in between, to register a right of information from patients and reciprocal information to other cantons, in order to compensate for the lack of transparency which today characterizes the decisions of the CSPSDP vis-à-vis the authorizations to practice,” adds Cédric Alber.
Doctor banned in the canton of Vaud, authorized in Friborg
A few weeks ago, “Morning SundayHeld that Switzerland did not have the European doctors’ surveillance system. But communication gaps are existing within our country. Because the Geneva psychiatrist is not the only one who can exercise in one place, while he is struck off in another. Our survey shows that this is also the case of another doctor in French -speaking Switzerland. It is a general practitioner who is forbidden to practice in the canton of Vaud, but has the right in the canton of Friborg. There either, we will not know what reproaches him for the office of the Cantonal Vaudois doctor. Our research tells us that this Frenchman was sentenced to his country to prison for massive tax fraud. Do the Vaudois authorities believe that this prevents him from being a good doctor, unlike those from Friborg? We will not know anything.
For Baptiste Hurni, deputy for the Council of States (PS/NE) and vice-president of the Swiss patient organization, this situation reveals “A flaw in the doctors’ control system” (See our interview).
Amended psychiatrist for lying with a patient
In French -speaking Switzerland, the canton of Vaud is the one that has struck the most doctors in recent years. Does the Department of Health and Social Action believe that transparency is sufficient in this area? “There are sometimes situations for which a sanction or measure should be able to be communicated to patients or employers,” admits his spokesperson Cathy Gornik. But she adds that federal laws do not allow it.
In the past, the Department has indeed wanted to publish in the sheet of official opinions (FAO) of sanctions inflicted on health professionals. But this practice was challenged before the courts and gave rise to case law of the Federal Court. This judgment, returned on July 11, 2017, explains that a Vaudish psychiatrist had received a blame and a fine from the cantonal authorities after having sex with a patient. The judges of Mon-Repos agreed to the doctor, by prohibiting the canton from publishing this sanction in the FAO.
An aesthetic doctor struck off in Switzerland and left … in Morocco!
For patients who have had problems with a doctor, it is not so easy to check if this doctor has already had problems in the past. However, they can turn to theSwiss patient organization For general information on possible procedures. The cantonal doctor’s office also allows denounce the reprehensible acts (see our box).
When intercantonal communication works, then doctors with risky practices can no longer exercise in Switzerland at all. But their career can still bounce back: this is the case of a plastic surgeon radiated from the canton of Vaud in 2022. On his Instagram profile, we find him now … in Morocco!
Paul plan has been a data journalist since 2016. Its main interests are open data, free culture and electronics. He teaches at the Training Center for Journalism and the Media, in Lausanne, as well as at the Haute École de Gestion in Geneva. He received the Suva Media Prize, a “favorite” category in 2020.More info
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