Health Inspectorate sees violation in October complaint against doctor Nikiforenko, but has not punished him / Article

IN SHORT:

• Last October, the patient filed a complaint with the State Police and the Health Inspectorate regarding the actions of Dr. Nikiforenko during the visit.
• Police demanded explanations from Nikiforenko, but did not see the crime and did not initiate criminal proceedings against the doctor.
• According to media reports, the police asked the prosecutor’s office to investigate the case and nevertheless initiated criminal proceedings against the doctor.
• The health inspector performed an examination and concluded that the doctor did nothing more than a routine examination of the inguinal lymph nodes.
• The inspectorate concluded that the law had been violated, as the doctor had not asked the patient for consent to have the lymph nodes examined, but Nikiforenko did not punish him.
• The lawyer explains that the law does not make the inspectorate wait for a repeated violation to punish.
• One of the inspectorate’s arguments as to why it cannot currently punish Nikiforenko is that old inspection cases against the doctor have been destroyed. This was done in the interest of the media about the doctor’s actions.

LTV reports that Alexander (name changed) went to Nikiforenko with complaints of muscle pain. During the visit, he expressed compliments and jokes and asked him to lie down on a couch and show his belly. In a written interview for the show, Alexander describes what happened next:

“I hugged, he touched my stomach. Then he quickly pulled on my leggings and panties and put my hand in my panties, touching the intimate places.

I squeezed his legs together, grabbed his hand and told me not to do this. But he still pushed his hand hard, but shook my hand with the other and said I needed to check my lymph nodes. Realizing I was resisting, he quickly touched his right, left, and went to his desk. After the visit, I felt very strange. I sat at the clinic for an hour in a car, I couldn’t understand what had happened. Then I had a panic attack, a feeling of disgust and dirt. I didn’t know where to look, I took a shower and a bath. I slept for a long time. “

A few days after the visit, Alexander wrote applications for Nikiforenko to the State Police and the Health Inspectorate. Latvian Television is aware that the police demanded explanations from Nikiforenko. The doctor replied that all he had done was an examination of the lymph nodes and abdominal organs. This was justified in Alexander’s complaints.

It can be concluded that the inspector who examined Alexander’s application did not check what the doctor said.

The police soon informed Alexander that he did not see the crime in the doctor’s activities and that no criminal proceedings would be instituted against him.

The police decision does not analyze what Alexander said that after the woman’s request to stop, Nikiforenko continued to touch her and held her hands by force.

However, after Nikiforenko’s actions were reported in the media, the police returned to the case and asked the prosecutor’s office to investigate. As a result, criminal proceedings were instituted against the doctor. The police do not say more in order not to harm the investigation, but call on anyone who believes that they have suffered from Nikiforenko’s actions to apply.

LTV reports that the Health Inspectorate also performed an examination at Alexander’s request and also concluded that the doctor did nothing more than a routine examination of the inguinal lymph nodes.

However, according to the health inspectorate, Nikiforenko violated the law by not requiring the patient’s consent to examine the lymph nodes. However, the inspectorate decided not to punish the doctor.

“Is this a penalty for which administrative responsibility must be applied immediately? I think not, if it is repeated within a year, then yes,” explains Anita Slokenberga, the head of the Health Inspectorate. Ronalds Rožkalns, a sworn attorney who spoke to “de facto”, explains that the new law does not make the inspectorate wait for a repeated violation to be punished for violating the law. The action of the Rožkalns Inspectorate in the Nikiforenko case is called formal.

Aleksandra wrote to the Health Inspectorate even after Latvijas Radio inquired about older inspections of Nikiforenko. Slokenberga claims to Latvian Television that she did not know about it.

One of the main arguments of the Health Inspectorate as to why it cannot punish Nikiforenko at the moment is that the old examination cases against the doctor have been destroyed.

But Latvian Radio found out – the inspectorate handed over the documents for destruction after receiving questions about the institution’s conduct in investigating complaints against the immunologist.

“I think there is a generation that believes that a doctor-therapist, for example, can only measure blood pressure and listen to the heart. He does nothing more, but it is not. (..) At the same time, I want to note that the patient has not turned to the institution. “Biocon executives who are right next door in the office and immediately dealt with this issue, and this patient has not been to this doctor more than once, as it turned out. If I have such disturbing information, then I turn to the management, I inform,” the conversation with “De facto” expressed by Slokenberg.

CONTEXT:

Several women have accused immunologist Yevgeny Nikiforenko of their specialty improper manipulation, as well as turned to the police and other supervisory authorities for believing that the victim had been sexually abused, but the police closed the case and the prosecutor ‘s office rejected the women’ s complaints about the doctor. After publishing the story in the media at the Latvian Radio and Investigative Journalism Center “Re: Baltica” several other patients of this doctor.

The Health Inspectorate both ir destroyed documents The de facto LTV program reported on Nikiforenko’s inspection case 12 years ago.

The doctor himself avoids media issues, but according to the ATV story turned to the police against journalists.

Politicians have also paid attention to media publications, emphasizing that what happened must be told and principles should be developed to prevent sexual exploitation in the doctor’s office.

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