London, August 1
An NRI heart surgeon has won a five-year legal battle to get his job back, after being suspended by the National Health Service at a cost of £5 million.
Dr Raj Mattu (47), chief cardiologist at the former Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry, was suspended from his job in February, 2002, after he blew the whistle on overcrowding at his heart attack recovery ward.
Managers forced extra beds into the unit to meet treatment targets. Mattu claimed that this led to 11 patients dying because they could not be reached in an emergency by resuscitation teams. He is also being accused of bullying and harassing a junior doctor, which Mattu denied.
Since 2002, he has been sitting at home on two-thirds of his £100,000 per annum salary while the NHS trust paid locums (casuals) to do his work, fought the case to the High Court and set up an independent inquiry.
The inquiry panel ruled two years ago that Mattu should be allowed to return to work but the hospital refused to accept the decision.
The hospital finally agreed yesterday to let Mattu get back to work after a new management team at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, took over.
— PTI
