July 16, 2021. General practitioner Michaël Rochoy, based in Pas-de-Calais, consults President Emmanuel Macron’s vaccination pass on the website of the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam). An act that still costs him today, two and a half years later. This Saturday, January 27, the healthcare professional had the unpleasant surprise of being sanctioned with a 15-day ban on practicing from July 1 to 15 of this year. He had already suspended for the same facts two weeks from November 1 to 15, 2023.
Asked by 20 minutes, the doctor swears that these intentions were not bad: “At the time, I just asked that doctors be able to access the vaccination status of their patients, very important information in care in the midst of a pandemic . By consulting Emmanuel Macron’s data, I just wanted to prove that it was already possible for any citizen, so we might as well not prohibit doctors from doing it for their patients. It was just a ‘proof by concept’ demonstration. »
” Take the necessary measures “
He himself calls the Elysée to warn them of a malfunction, due to an error on the vaccination pass – a wrong date was indicated for the president’s vaccination – and to alert them that the data is available at any doctor with a little gumption “It was enough to know the name of the president, as well as his date of birth, which is very easily found,” emphasizes Michaël Rochoy.
Problem, the Cnam ended up getting involved and sent a letter to around thirty health professionals (pharmacists, doctors and nurses) who had consulted Emmanuel Macron’s vaccination sheet, as well as to their respective regional order, inviting them to take “the necessary measures”, any consultation of a medical status being prohibited by the order. “Emmanuel Macron had announced that he had been infected with covid, and had announced that he had been vaccinated, so it was not a medical secret,” defends Michaël Rochoy. After a first disciplinary sanction from the Hauts-de-France disciplinary chamber of first instance of the order of doctors of 15 days of suspension in November 2023, the doctor decides not to appeal, wishing to “put an end to this matter and turn the page “.
“In comparison, Raoult only took one blame”
But the national order of doctors decides otherwise, and appeals the decision, “so that a more significant sanction can be imposed” in October 2023, before finally retracting in January. Problem, due to this real false call, the suspension from November 1 to 15 is judged to be void – even though Michaël Rochoy had not exercised during this period – and a second suspension of 15 days is then re-decreed, between the 1st and the 15th of July.
A purely Kafkaesque decision which somewhat exasperates the doctor, tired of so many twists and turns: “It’s relentlessness. As a reminder, Didier Raoult only received a reprimand from the medical order after all his mistakes, while I suffered a heavier sanction. » A good thing all the same to end this incredible story: “I received enormous support from the vast majority of the medical community”.