Sacked cardiologist who warned hospital overcrowding was killing patients was paid £560,000 to stay at home during ten-year battle to clear his name

By Simon Trump for The Mail on Sunday

Published: 20:25 EST, 4 August 2012 | Updated: 07:06 EST, 5 August 2012

Dr Raj Mattu (pictured with his wife Sangeeta) has been at the centre of a decade-long battle to clear his name after raising concerns about dangerous post-operative care at his hospital

A leading heart specialist who was sacked after raising concerns about dangerous post-operative care at one of Britain’s worst hospitals is at the centre of a decade-long battle to clear his name that could land the NHS with a £10 million bill.

Dr Raj Mattu, a £70,000-a-year  cardiologist, was paid to do nothing for eight years while suspended on full pay before being sacked in 2010.He is now taking his case to an employment tribunal that is due to last at least 12 weeks.

Hospital bosses are expected to defend the case, which has already cost more than £6 million including legal fees.

Dr Mattu will accuse his former employers of racial and disability discrimination – he was ill in hospital when he was sacked – unfair  dismissal and failing to protect  him under legislation designed to encourage whistleblowing.

If successful, payments for damages, loss of earnings and injury to feelings could take the total over £10  million. The case is believed to be the NHS’s longest-running and most expensive whistleblower dispute.

Supporters of the internationally renowned cardiologist say his career was ruined and his health destroyed when he was suspended from his job at Coventry’s failing Walsgrave Hospital in 2002 after complaining that overcrowded wards had caused the deaths of at least two patients.

Dr Mattu claims one of his patients  died while he was attempting to resuscitate him in a bay so overcrowded that nurses could not reach him with vital lifesaving equipment. Dr Mattu and two senior nursing colleagues lodged an official serious clinical incident report on the  case, which his supporters claim was ignored by managers at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust.

He raised a Public Interest Disclosure about the money-saving management policy of placing five beds in bays designed for four patients which he says cost at least two lives.

The majority of the hospital’s doctors, nurses and consultants backed his appeal for an end to the ‘five-in-four’ policy, but pleas were ignored.The trust’s then chief executive, David Loughton, subsequently denied any deaths or harm to patients. He claimed only those fit to be discharged were placed in such beds.

After failing to get a response from the trust, Dr Mattu sought advice from the Medical Protection Society, the British Medical Association and the General Medical Council and was advised to go public.

As a consequence of his campaign, Dr Mattu believes he was branded a troublemaker and his career ruined. Five months after making his complaint, he was suspended from duty and accused of bullying.

A disciplinary inquiry in 2005, chaired by Andrew Stafford QC, recommended that Dr Mattu be reinstated but its conclusion was ignored by trust bosses. And a disciplinary file passed to the GMC containing more than 200 allegations, including the bullying claims, was dismissed by the GMC in 2009.

Supporters of the internationally renowned cardiologist say his career was ruined when he was suspended from Coventry's failing Walsgrave Hospital (above) in 2002 after complaining that overcrowded wards had caused the deaths of at least two patients

In the wake of Dr Mattu’s suspension, a reinstatement campaign was launched with a 6,000-strong petition. Campaign spokesman Brian King said: ‘Dr Mattu was trying to highlight to the management that patients’ lives were being put in danger. He had no choice but to take the matter public.’

But ever since, Dr Mattu has been unable to work as his dispute rumbled on. He got engaged in 2003 and was still off work when he  married his wife Sangeeta in 2009.

Shortly before his suspension, a series of independent reports into care at the hospital – given a zero-star rating by the Department of Health in September 2001 – appeared to vindicate his concerns.

A clinical governance report by the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) listed a number of serious criticisms and found the hospital had a death rate far higher than expected.

The CHI condemned the policy of ‘five-in-four’ and demanded it be stopped immediately. It also warned of a ‘culture of fear’ created by senior managers when dealing with staff raising complaints.

A damning independent audit by the private health consumer company Dr Foster discovered the trust had the worst survival rates in the country for heart-bypass surgery.

Dr Mattu is currently pursuing a separate claim of breach of contract against the trust, which he plans to take to the Supreme Court after  losing his case at the High Court and then at the Court of Appeal.

John Hendy QC, representing Dr Mattu at the High Court in 2011, summed up the conundrum facing his client. He said: ‘The decision of the trust is so potent he is effectively disabled from working in the NHS. Dr Mattu has been rendered unemployable.’

Dr Mattu and his solicitor Stephen Moore declined to comment last night. Walsgrave Hospital closed  six years ago and was replaced under the Private Finance Initiative by  the University Hospital, Coventry.

A trust spokeswoman said: ‘Dr Mattu has already brought a claim against the trust in the High Court which he pursued to the Court of Appeal. This claim was unsuccessful and Dr Mattu was ordered to pay the trust’s costs.

‘The courts fully endorsed the approach taken by the trust and we expect the employment tribunal will reach the same conclusion.’