Whistleblowing heart medical doctor who aired hospital security fears wins tribunal situation

Surgeons change a heart valve. Mattu raised issues such as patients’ beds being squeezed too shut collectively after operations. Photograph: Sean Smith/Guardian

A whistleblowing heart medical doctor who sounded the alarm about poor care and patient deaths at his own hospital has won a main legal victory towards his NHS employers, whose attempts to pursue in the end unsubstantiated allegations against him expense £6m of public money.

An employment tribunal has ruled that Dr Raj Mattu was unfairly dismissed by the Walsgrave hospital in Coventry, and suffered a series of “detriments” soon after he spoke out about what he saw as hazardous circumstances, which includes as well numerous patients’ beds becoming squeezed together to support alleviate overcrowding.

Mattu was sacked by University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust in 2010, nine years soon after he first aired his considerations publicly about what he stated was dangerous submit-operative care. He highlighted a series of worries about patient security, including the situations of two patients who died in crowded bays.

He voiced alarm at the hospital’s “5-in-4″ policy, beneath which – to save funds – an extra fifth bed was positioned in a bay meant for only four individuals. The Commission for Health Improvement, the then NHS watchdog, condemned the practice and criticised the hospital, which it said had a much larger death fee than must have been anticipated.

An employment tribunal sitting in Birmingham below Judge Hughes ruled this week that 54-yr-outdated Mattu had been unfairly dismissed and would receive compensation, which will be decided later on.

It described him as blameless, saying: “The claimant did not result in or contribute to his dismissal.”

The believe in ran up in excess of £6m in legal charges in its long quest against Mattu, which he mentioned was a campaign of vilification designed to discredit him for no purpose. The General Medical Council determined not to proceed to an inquiry following hunting into far more than 200 allegations the believe in created towards him.

It also employed private detectives to investigate the cardiologist and a public relations agency to manage media curiosity in the lengthy-running situation, which noticed Mattu obtain important assistance from his healthcare colleagues.

Mattu had been “vilified, bullied and harassed out of a work he loved”, the doctor’s lawyer claimed. “This has been a David v Goliath legal battle, which I am delighted to have won for my consumer,” explained his solicitor, Stephen Moore.

“The tribunal’s findings – that Dr Mattu was a whistleblower and was unfairly dismissed – entirely vindicate him. Dr Mattu was a amazing cardiologist and it was tragic that his pursuit of safety and the highest requirements in care led to him currently being vilified, bullied and harassed out of a work he loved.” Moore extra.

“This case has brought to light the appalling way whistleblowers are still being treated and raises critical and wider concerns that need to be addressed.”

In a statement, the trust stated it was “disappointed by the employment tribunal’s decision that the dismissal of Dr Mattu was unfair, provided that the procedure followed by the trust was reviewed by the court of appeal in March 2012, when it located in the Trust’s favour”.

It extra: “We are pleased that they have firmly rejected his main declare that his dismissal in 2010 was in any way linked to whistleblowing about patient care.

“As a believe in, we will continue to help all our personnel to increase problems of concern in our work to give continuous improvement in our solutions to patients.”

In his inaugural speech as the new chief executive of NHS England earlier this month, Simon Stevens stated that, while each and every whistleblower would not always be right, “the reality is, patients’ lives are saved when courageous people speak up – openly and truthfully – and when every single of us requires private accountability for putting items correct.”

Whistleblowing heart medical doctor who aired hospital security fears wins tribunal situation