Whistleblowing heart doctor who aired hospital safety fears wins tribunal case

Trust spent £6m in effort to discredit cardiologist Raj Mattu but tribunal rules that sacking by Coventry hospital was unjustified

The Guardian, Denis Campbell, health correspondent, Thursday 17 April 2014

Surgeons replace a heart valve. Mattu raised issues such as patients' beds being
squeezed too close together after operations. Photograph: Sean Smith/Guardian

A whistleblowing heart doctor who sounded the alarm about poor care and patient deaths at his own hospital has won a major legal victory against his NHS employers, whose attempts to pursue ultimately unsubstantiated allegations against him cost £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" after he spoke out about what he saw as dangerous conditions, including too many patients' beds being squeezed together to help relieve overcrowding.

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

He voiced alarm at the hospital's "five-in-four" policy, under which – to save money – an extra fifth bed was placed in a bay intended for only four patients. The Commission for Health Improvement, the then NHS watchdog, condemned the practice and criticised the hospital, which it said had a much higher death rate than should have been expected.

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

It described him as blameless, saying: "The claimant did not cause or contribute to his dismissal."

The trust ran up over £6m in legal fees in its long quest against Mattu, which he said was a campaign of vilification designed to discredit him for no reason. The General Medical Council decided not to proceed to an inquiry after looking into more than 200 allegations the trust made against him. It also hired private detectives to investigate the cardiologist and a public relations agency to handle media interest in the long-running case, which saw Mattu receive significant support from his medical colleagues.

Mattu had been "vilified, bullied and harassed out of a job 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 client," said his solicitor, Stephen Moore.

"The tribunal's findings – that Dr Mattu was a whistleblower and was unfairly dismissed – completely vindicate him. Dr Mattu was a fantastic cardiologist and it was tragic that his pursuit of safety and the highest standards in care led to him being vilified, bullied and harassed out of a job he loved." Moore added.

"This case has brought to light the appalling way whistleblowers are still being treated and raises important and wider issues that should be addressed."

In a statement, the trust said it was "disappointed by the employment tribunal's decision that the dismissal of Dr Mattu was unfair, given that the procedure followed by the trust was reviewed by the court of appeal in March 2012, when it found in the Trust's favour".

It added: "We are pleased that they have firmly rejected his primary claim that his dismissal in 2010 was in any way linked to whistleblowing about patient care.

As a trust, we will continue to support all our staff to raise issues of concern in our effort to provide continuous improvement in our services to patients."

In his inaugural speech as the new chief executive of NHS England earlier this month, Simon Stevens said that, while every whistleblower would not always be right, "the fact is, patients' lives are saved when courageous people speak up – openly and honestly – and when each of us takes personal accountability for putting things right."

The coalition has moved to stop NHS organisations from victimising whistleblowers after a number of cases came to light involving alleged harassment and silencing of staff who spoke out about poor care or patient safety, such as over the case of Baby P, Peter Connolly. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered all trusts to be open and transparent and take whistleblowers' claims seriously, set up a hotline for those with concerns and strengthened whistleblowers' rights in the NHS staff contract. Hunt said: "This shows just how important it is that whistleblowers speaking out about poor care can be confident they will be listened to. Anything less than an open, transparent culture in which NHS staff are supported to raise concerns is unacceptable."

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