£100,000 for Doctor of Year branded a racist for voicing concern over Asian medics
A SURGEON branded a “racist” who felt forced to quit his NHS job after whistleblowing on Asian doctors has won a £102,000 payout for unfair dismissal.
Peter Duffy, 56, once voted a hospital’s Doctor of the Year, suffered a poison pen letter campaign and was falsely accused of racism after he raised his concerns.
One complaint he made was against an Indian doctor who played golf while his patient was suspected of having a flesh-eating infection.
Mr Duffy, a consultant urologist at Royal Lancaster Infirmary, said after whistleblowing he was subjected to “malicious, toxic and false” allegations over 10 years – none of them substantiated.
He transferred to another hospital in the same trust where a colleague told him: “You’ve made enemies.”
In 2015 Mr Duffy was voted Doctor of the Year by Furness General Hospital, Cumbria.
But next year he resigned from University Hospitals Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, claiming his £200,000 salary had been cut by £36,000.
He won the compensation at an employment tribunal in Manchester last week.
He told the tribunal: “I wanted nothing except to be in the NHS as a consultant surgeon ever since I was 18.
Betrayal
“But after what happened, I felt there was a fundamental betrayal. It seems increasingly clear that there was a secretive retaliatory campaign to brand me racist.
“I felt far too frightened and traumatised to approach any other NHS organisations for permanent work.”
He said his problems began in 2005 when an Indian consultant failed to turn up to treat a patient with a flesheating infection.
Mr Duffy said he was called away from a family dinner to treat the patient, only for the original consultant to show up later in golfing clothes.
It was alleged that when two more Asian doctors were made consultants in 2009, they “despised” Mr Duffy.
After a patient’s death from sepsis following a 48-hour treatment delay, Mr Duffy raised concerns with the Care Quality Commission.
He was accused of racism at a 2014 meeting attended by the three Asian doctors and the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin.
An anonymous letter was sent to Lancaster police asking officers to investigate Mr Duffy for alleged racism.
The tribunal found he was unfairly dismissed due to breach of contract over pay but insisted his whistleblowing was not the cause.
The trust denied constructive and unfair dismissal. It said: “We’ve worked hard to ensure a culture where staff raise concerns without fear.”