On Monday last week, it became known that the Norwegian Health Authority has decided that the former municipal superintendent at Frosta will lose his authorisation. This means that he can no longer practice as a doctor in Norway. In August last year, he was charged with abusing his position to obtain sexual intercourse with patients. A total of 90 women have been offended in the case. At the end of May, the police expanded the charge to include rape in 34 of the cases. The police believe that the patients have not been able to resist the actions. The former municipal superintendent has always maintained that he is innocent. Through his lawyer, Karl Bjørnar Olsen, he criticizes how the supervisory authority has handled the case. In a letter to the Norwegian Health Authority, the lawyer questions the patients’ motivation for complaining to the doctor. In the letter it is stated that there is no doubt that the position of GP and municipal chief physician means that the doctor has had to make a number of unpopular decisions. “This has also manifested itself in the fact that patients with revenge motives, (specifically with key words: drugs, driver’s licence, child protection) have been allowed to express themselves freely in the media, without opportunities for defense on the part of the doctor, because he is not exempted from his duty of confidentiality. » These statements cause one of the women who reported to the municipal superintendent to react: – Here he portrays us as a bunch of drug addicts, vengeful, women on sick leave on the slope with child protection and without a driver’s license, says the woman to news. – In no way speaking about everyone Lawyer Karl Bjørnar Olsen points out that in the letter to the Norwegian Health Authority he expresses the former municipal superintendent’s opinion on the matter. – What do you mean when you write that the women may have revenge motives for notifying your client? – It is the doctor’s experience of it. He has acted in many roles and feels he may have enemies among those who have reported, says Olsen. – Is this the same as claiming that they have delivered false notices? – He has reported one person for false explanation. But false alerts, I have no basis to say that personally. He experiences it as a distortion of reality, says Olsen. The lawyer emphasizes that the former doctor does not believe that this applies to all women. – He does not claim that all 90 are drug addicts, he has never said that. These are individual cases, says Olsen and adds: – The type of problem referred to in my letter could have been uncovered if the Norwegian Health Authority had thoroughly reviewed patient records as part of the case management. In the Norwegian Health Authority’s decision to revoke the authorisation, they write that the case has followed the routines that apply to handling supervisory cases. Reacting to the doctor’s presentation The abuse allegations against the doctor stretch back to the end of the 90s. At the end of January this year, the doctor was fired as the municipality’s chief physician in Frosta. The woman, who previously had the municipal superintendent as a GP, reacts to how those who reported are portrayed. – There are actually not as many as 90 drug addicts, women on sick leave, without a driver’s license and in conflict with child welfare out here. After all, there are only 2,600 of us here, half of whom are men, she says. Many in the small municipality of Trøndelag are affected by the extensive assault charge against the doctor. Photo: Tariq Alisubh / news – What I have received from his prescriptions are antibiotics for strep throat. I have never heard of anyone becoming addicted to it. The closest I’ve come to being without a driver’s license is speeding in a 60 zone. Didn’t need a doctor’s note to keep the card, even though it hurt terribly to pay the fine, says the woman to news. – Nor have I had any contact with child protection during my children’s upbringing. Then it can also be mentioned that not all whistleblowers have children, she says. The woman is relieved that her former GP has lost her authorisation. The Norwegian Health Authority: “Significant lack of professional insight” Lawyer Olsen writes in the letter to the Norwegian Health Authority that it appears that the Norwegian Health Authority makes a decision on the basis of undocumented allegations. Department director Anne Myhr in the National Health Inspectorate tells news that they follow the Public Administration Act and that they do not make a decision without a case being necessary and sufficiently informed. – And we think we have done that, says Myhr. The former doctor maintains that he has done nothing illegal as a doctor. The Norwegian Health Authority writes that they assess the man as unfit to be a practicing physician due to a “significant lack of professional insight” and “behavior that is considered incompatible with the practice of the profession”. The Norwegian Health Authority believes that the former municipal superintendent at Frosta is unfit to be a doctor and has revoked his authorisation. Photo: Morten Waagø / news The municipality asks for help After the doctor was charged by the police in August last year, Frosta municipality set up a contact number for victims of abuse, in collaboration with Nok. Trøndelag. Since then, they have received 149 inquiries, according to a recent letter from municipal director Endre Skjervø in Frosta. In the same letter, it is stated that residents have also been referred to both the hospital in Levanger and DPS Stjørdal. Furthermore, it states that Frosta municipality’s own employees in the field of addiction and psychiatry do not have sufficient capacity to look after and carry out health care in this case. “For that, the case is too big, too all-encompassing, too intrusive,” Skjervø writes in the letter. In the letter, they ask for the opportunity to purchase services from Trondheim municipality.
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Alerts in the case of the municipal superintendent reacting to statements – news Trøndelag
