Medical association delays action on doctor found guilty of indecent assault

The disciplinary committee of the Cyprus Medical Association (CyMAR) has delayed taking action for more than three months against a doctor found guilty of indecent assault, it emerged on Friday.

The doctor, Pavlos Antoniou, was found guilty back in January of indecent assault against a patient. The complainant, a family friend, accused Antoniou of indecent acts during a visit for specific examinations requiring anaesthesia.

She accused the doctor of taking her to a “closed space” within the premises only to later engage in indecent acts four times within a few minutes after she regained consciousness.

Antoniou was sentenced to three months in jail, which he served.

Despite being struck off the national health scheme (Gesy) register by the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO), he resumed work while CyMAR’s disciplinary committee was expected to decide on whether to strip him of his license.

Antoniou has also previously been found guilty of similar crimes.

He pled guilty in 2015 to sexual harassment and indecent assault, for crimes carried out in his workplace. According to head of the CyMAR’s ethics committee Michalis Anastasiades, Antoniou only had to pay a fine.

The issue has now reached a breaking point, with women’s groups condemning the doctor’s actions and CyMAR’s delayed response. Pogo Women’s Movement head Skevi Koukouma told the Cyprus Mail, “The disciplinary committee should have reacted immediately; instead, they are stalling.”

Koukouma explained that they met with CyMAR in 2015 when the issue first emerged, only to learn that the association was not informed about the court decision or the complaint.

She criticised CyMAR for failing to act despite having ample time to decide on measures against Antoniou “What more information is needed by the medical association to take a decision?”

“In the end, they defame the standing of all doctors by not taking measures,” she said.

Koukouma called for an amendment to ensure the medical association is informed immediately when such issues arise.

She added that CyMAR is not solely to blame, as the association has proposed amendments to the doctor’s law to the health ministry to make punishment in such cases immediate, but the review of these proposals has stalled. “The health ministry is delaying a review of the bill amendments and sending it to parliament,” she said.

In their announcement, Pogo questioned, “What more does the CyMAR Disciplinary Council need to have in its hands to take disciplinary action if a conviction by the Court is not enough?” They also expressed concern about the message being sent to society and women who file complaints against doctors if convicted individuals are allowed to continue working.

Meanwhile, later in the day, CyMAR issued an announcement saying they consider any criticism on procedures by the disciplinary committee “unfounded”.

“While the decision before the disciplinary committee is pending and given that as the Cyprus Medical Association we have followed to the letter and to the absolute extent the newly established disciplinary procedures, we consider any criticism for negligence to be unfounded,” they said.

CyMAR said that they are being “targeted” and “criticised” for following the procedures as outlined by law in dealing with the issue of the doctor.

According to the association, this case is currently being examined by the Doctors’ Disciplinary Committee, after CyMAR followed all the procedures laid down in the law.

They added the Doctors’ Disciplinary Committee is an independent institutional body which is established and operates based on state legislation.

“CyMAR cannot and does not interfere with the work of the Doctors’ Disciplinary Committee, where the case in question is currently examined,” they said.