NHS whistleblower: I was accused of fraud and sexual impropriety

Dr Mattu was suspended for eight many years, then sacked, in a situation which is already estimated to have cost the NHS at least £6 million.

Professionals feel he could be in line for damages of up to £10 million.

The cardiologist publicly exposed overcrowding and fears for patient safety at Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry in 2001, claiming that there may have been avoidable deaths as a outcome.

He was then “vilified and bullied” by the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust during a “witch hunt” which lasted almost a decade, in accordance to his attorneys.

Dr Mattu told BBC Radio 4’s These days programme: “I was rather concerned that the reason I came into medicine, which was to care for patients and to hopefully conserve lives, was not a priority or surely a main factor of what managers in the hospital in Coventry were focused on.

“Patient security was frequently place at risk and individuals had been dying that I felt would not have died at other hospitals I had worked at.”

He stated he was forced to flip whistleblower simply because the trust repeatedly ignored his complaints about the remedy of individuals, including a policy which allowed five patients to be place in a ward developed for 4.

A yr following speaking out the £70,000-a-year physician was suspended by the trust on total spend soon after being accused of bullying. He was dismissed in 2010.

Dr Mattu said that following his selection to blow the whistle, the hospital’s head of protection was asked to monitor him and “try and uncover as significantly information to use towards me as possible” in an attempt to blacken his title.

“I was accused of fraud, I was accused of sexual impropriety, assaults, not carrying out my duties and so on,” he mentioned.

The believe in employed private investigators, who had been paid nearly £60,000 to investigate the cardiologist’s affairs.

He was cleared this week of wrongdoing by Birmingham Employment Tribunal, which ruled the trust unfairly dismissed him and subjected him to “detriments” simply because he was a whistleblower.

Dr Mattu stated: “I’m completely relieved that one particular of the things that has come out of this situation that I have won is that I have been vindicated for what I did, since a single of the other key findings of the tribunal is that they located that I had not induced or contributed to towards my dismissal.”

But he mentioned the trust’s actions had been normal of the response of NHS managers.

“Unfortunately that is a typical practice of numerous managers inside the NHS, this denial of what the main purpose is as to why you are targeted,” he said.

“It is really challenging to feel that it is sheer coincidence that, obtaining in no way faced from 1979 to 2001 any allegations or complaints, that all of a sudden I must have turn into so altered in my nature and persona that suddenly more than 200 allegations were justified, I was suspended for five-and-a-half years, and prevented from carrying out the work I had so a lot needed to do given that the age of 18.

“I just locate it really tough to conquer the truth that there is usually this attempt to place forward a plausible option when the true cause at the heart of why all these allegations had been all of a sudden mustered up is the reality that I had whistle blown, spoken out as an advocate for the individuals and was not prepared to accept what was in the best interests of the managers.”

He added: “Emotionally it has been really draining. I have mixed emotions in excess of the judgment: I am relieved that I have won the case, I am also pleased that my detriments have been recognised by the employment tribunal.

“But the saddest point out of all of this for me is that the people who have lost out the most are the patients and the public simply because for 13 years the believe in management have prevented me from seeking following individuals. They have also, in the way they have taken care of me, discouraged any more whistleblowers in the NHS from coming forward and risking obtaining their occupation and livelihood destroyed.”

He mentioned he needed talks with Mr Hunt and NHS chief executive Simon Stevens about his situation and the treatment of other whistleblowers.

Dr Mattu’s solicitor Stephen Moore described the situation as a “David v Goliath battle”.

Following becoming suspended Dr Mattu won a disciplinary hearing and the believe in was forced to reinstate him in 2008.

A year later an inquiry by the Standard Medical Council also cleared him of the prolonged-standing bullying allegations.

But Dr Mattu continued to experience hostility from management and in 2009 launched grievance procedures.

This was met with counter-allegations of far more bullying and breach of confidentiality and in 2010 Dr Mattu was dismissed by the believe in while on sick depart.

The trust defended its actions and mentioned it was seeking into the tribunal’s selection “to contemplate its grounds for appeal”.

In a statement, it mentioned: “We are disappointed by the Employment Tribunal’s decision that the dismissal of Dr Mattu was unfair, given that the procedure followed by the Believe in was reviewed by the Court of Appeal in March 2012 when it identified in the Trust’s favour.

“The Trust now requirements to examine the Tribunal’s determination in much more detail (which runs to over 400 pages) to think about its grounds for appeal.

“However, we are pleased that they have firmly rejected his main declare that his dismissal in 2010 was in any way linked to whistle-blowing about patient care.”

NHS whistleblower: I was accused of fraud and sexual impropriety