Doctor who blew whistle on Asian colleagues ‘was branded a racist and hounded out’

‘The victim of a witch-hunt’

A SURGEON voted ‘doctor of the year’ at an NHS hospital was forced to quit after he was branded a racist for raising concerns about the work of three Asian colleagues, a tribunal heard yesterday.

Peter Duffy, 56, reported one Indian consultant for missing ‘ several’ cancers and also for playing golf when he had been called to treat a patient, it was said.

He further claimed two other Asian colleagues were involved in possible overtime fraud and had tried to ‘suppress discussion’ over the avoidable death of a man who had suffered sepsis and bungled operations.

Mr Duffy, a consultant urologist at Royal Lancaster Infirmary, said he was subjected to ‘malicious, toxic and utterly false’ allegations over a ten-year period after he was warned to ‘watch his back’ over his whistleblowing.

During an alleged whispering campaign against him, anonymous allegations were made to police claiming he was a racist bully and that all ethnic minority doctors at the hospital were ‘in fear of him’.

At the same time a meeting was held without the married father of three being present in which he was accused of racism by the three consultants, Kavinder Madhra, Ashutush Jain and Saleem Naseem. None of the claims was substantiated. Mr Duffy transferred to another hospital under the same NHS trust – University Hospitals Morecambe Bay (UHMB) – but resigned in July 2016, claiming his £200,000-ayear salary was cut by £36,000 amid unproven allegations over his own overtime claims.

Yesterday, Mr Duffy, who now works in the private sector, claimed constructive dismissal in a case brought under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 alleging he was the victim of a ‘witch-hunt’. The law protects workers who make protected disclosures from being Peter Duffy: ‘Forced to quit’ dismissed or subjected to any other detriment as a result of the disclosure.

In a statement given to the tribunal Mr Duffy, from Lancaster, said he had suffered heart problems as a result of his treatment and now had ‘chronic’ post-traumatic stress disorder. He claimed to have been subjected to ‘a clear and sustained campaign of victimisation, vilification and disinformation by the clinicians’. Mr Duffy said there was ‘no other credible explanation’ for the alleged campaign except that it was in ‘retaliation’ for the disclosures he had made.

He said: ‘I was threatened, abused, victimised and briefed against by those individuals who did not share my belief in a high- quality clinical service... and who clearly felt threatened by my protected disclosures.’

He said he had been branded a racist, which was ‘utterly false’.

The alleged problems involving Mr Duffy, who was clinical lead of the urology department, began in 2005 when Dr Madhra was called upon to treat a patient with gangrene or necrotising fasciitis, the ‘flesh-eating’ virus.

When he failed to arrive, Mr Duffy claimed he was called away from a family dinner to treat the patient himself – only for Mr Madhra to turn up midafternoon in golfing clothes.

Mr Duffy also said Mr Madhra was unable to use an ultra- sound machine and several cancers had been missed.

Mr Madhra was suspended for retraining. When Mr Jain and Mr Naseem were appointed consultants in 2009, they were said to have ‘ hated and despised’ Mr Duffy and he was subjected to a six- month inquiry over false claims that he was incompetent.

After an audit showed Mr Duffy carrying out the most emergency work in the department, the hearing was told Mr Jain and Mr Naseem accused him of operating on patients needlessly.

In 2015 Mr Duffy moved to Furness General Hospital – part of the same trust – where he was voted ‘Doctor of the Year’ by frontline NHS staff.

But that same year Mr Naseem was appointed clinical lead for the trust’s urology department and Mr Duffy resigned in 2016 complaining that his pay had been cut amid unproven allegations about his own overtime hours.

UHMB denies constructive dismissal. Neither the trust nor the consultants named in Mr Duffy’s statement made any comment yesterday. The hearing in Manchester continues.