What is the role of the Medical Council in the public service?

Verified 05 July 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Medical advice is a advisory body that your employer administration must obligatory consult front to make certain decisions concerning your administrative situation in case of illness. We provide you with the information you need to know about this instance.

In the State Civil Service, a ministerial medical council shall be established at each head office.

A departmental medical council is also set up within the prefect in each department.

Territorial and hospital civil service, the departmental medical council, attached to the prefect of each department, is responsible.

The members of the Medical Council may meet in restricted or plenary formation depending on the situation on which they are consulted.

Limited training

In restricted training, the medical council shall be composed of 3 doctors and 1 or more substitute doctors, appointed from among the approved doctors.

FYI  

The list of general practitioners and specialists shall be drawn up by the Prefect on a proposal from theARS: titleContent after obtaining the opinion of the Departmental Council of the Medical Association.

Plenary

In plenary session, the medical council shall be composed of doctors in restricted formation and representatives of the administration and staff.

The medical council is chaired by a doctor appointed by the prefect from among the regular doctors.

Limited training

The Medical Council shall meet in restricted training when considering the following draft decisions:

  • 1re setting in long-term sick leave (LSW) or long life (CLD) or serious illness
  • Renewal of a CLM or CLD after exhaustion of the period of one year or three years paid at full pay
  • Reinstatement at the end of the rights to sick leave, to CLM, CLD, leave for temporary invalidity attributable to service - Citis)
  • Reinstatement at the end of a CLM or CLD period if you are performing duties that require special health conditions or if you have been automatically placed in CLM or CLD
  • Ex officio lay-off for health reasons, renewal of lay-off and reintegration at the end of availability
  • Reclassification to another job body or framework of uses as a result of an alteration in your state of health.

The Medical Council shall also meet in restricted formation when it is asked for an opinion where a medical opinion delivered by a licensed medical practitioner is contested in the following situations

  • Procedure for checking, at the time of recruitment and during the course of a career, the particular health conditions required for the performance of certain duties
  • Placement on sick leave, placement in CLM, CLD, Citis and renewal of sick leave, CLM, CLD or Citis, reinstatement at the end of sick leave, CLM, CLD or Citis, allocation of part-time for therapeutic reasons
  • Medical examination requested by the administration during sick leave, CLM, CLD, sick leave or Citis, during a working period at part-time for therapeutic reasons or in the case of a request for an extension beyond three months of part-time work on therapeutic grounds
  • Retirement for incurable disability or illness
  • Application for the award of the third-party surcharge
  • Application for an orphan's pension (by an invalid child).

Plenary

The Medical Council shall meet in plenary session for the purpose of determining whether an accident or illness is attributable to the service where an act committed by the official or a circumstance unrelated to the service does not enable the administration itself to establish the link between the service and the illness and the accident.

The Medical Council shall also meet in plenary session in the following situations:

  • Determination of the rate of permanent incapacity following an occupational disease
  • Allocation of thetemporary invalidity allowance in the event of invalidity resulting from an accident on duty which has led to permanent incapacity of at least 10% or an occupational disease
  • Placed on sick leave because of injuries or illness acquired or aggravated by performing an act of dedication in the public interest or by exposing oneself to save the life of one or more persons
  • Retirement on grounds of disability
  • Award of an annuity to a probationary official dismissed for physical incompetence.

Medical advice is seized for opinion by the administrationat its own initiative or at your request.

The medical officer chairing the medical board shall examine the case. He may entrust the instruction to another doctor, a member of the board.

The instructing physician may use the expertise of a licensed medical practitioner.

The approved medical practitioner called upon to provide an expert opinion shall give a written opinion and may attend the meeting without taking part in the vote.

Please note

A doctor who is a member of the medical council and who has intervened as an expert on a case may not take part in the vote on that case.

When it sits in plenary session, the medical council may arrange for the administration to carry out any investigation or expert examination which it considers necessary.

You're informed at least 10 working days in advance the date of the meeting of the medical board.

You have the right to consult your medical file, to make written submissions and to provide medical certificates.

You also have the right to be accompanied or represented by a person of your choice at all stages of the procedure.

You can ask that the doctor of your choice be heard by the medical council. Your administration may also make the doctor of his choice heard. The medical council may ask to hear you if it deems it useful.

When your situation is reviewed by the Board in restricted training, the Council Secretariat shall inform you of the grounds of appeal of the opinion delivered before the higher medical council.

When your situation is reviewed by the plenary session, the council secretariat shall inform you of your right to be heard by the medical council.

The opinion of the medical council shall state the reasons on which it is based, in accordance with medical confidentiality. It is addressed to you and your administration.

Your administration informs the medical board of its decision.

When your situation has been reviewed by the restricted medical council, you and your administration may challenge the opinion of the Medical Council in front of the higher medical council.

The Higher Medical Council is a national body attached to the Ministry of Health.

The Medical Council Secretariat will tell you how to make this appeal.

The appeal must be made within 2 months following the notification in the opinion of the medical council.

The challenge must be presented to the medical council, which forwards it to the higher medical council and informs you and your administration.

The Higher Medical Council may arrange for a additional medical expertise.

The higher medical council shall take a decision on the basis of the documents in the file on the day on which it examines it.

In the absence of an opinion issued by the higher medical council within 4 months depending on the date they have your file, the opinion of the medical council in restricted training shall be considered as confirmed.

This period shall be suspended where the higher medical council has carried out an additional medical examination.

Your administration will make a new decision based on the advice of the senior medical board or, in the absence of advice from the senior medical board, at the end of the four-month period.

Opinions given by the medical council and possibly by the higher medical council are not binding on the administration.

Administration may take one different decision of the opinion delivered.

The opinion of the medical council may not therefore pitch be the subject of an appeal to the administrative judge.

However, in the event of an irregular procedure (absence of consultation of the medical council, irregular consultation), this irregularity may be invoked before the administrative tribunal during a request for cancelation a decision of the administration.