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German Courts Tackle Abuse by Medical Staff as Orthopedist Is Jailed and Pediatrician Is Charged

The latest cases underscore failures in oversight within clinics.

Overview

  • Potsdam prosecutors filed a 130-count indictment Wednesday against a Havelland pediatrician, sending the case to the Landgericht Potsdam to decide whether to open a trial.
  • The doctor has been in pretrial detention since November after a mother reported an assault in a Rathenow hospital, and investigators seized a large number of data drives.
  • In a separate case Tuesday, the Landgericht Osnabrück sentenced a 43-year-old orthopedist to five and a half years in prison and barred him for life from treating female patients.
  • The Osnabrück court said he secretly filmed and photographed patients since 2018 without medical need, reviewing more than 9,000 images and convicting him on 87 counts for abusing a treatment relationship and 98 counts for privacy violations.
  • The Havelland clinic group said the required four-eyes rule, which keeps two people present during exams, was broken in one incident, and a different court in Ellwangen gave a physiotherapist a suspended term of one year and eight months for abusing a patient.