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27th June 2003
Mr David Roberts
Chief Executive Walsgrave Hospital
Dear Mr Roberts,
Our enquiries suggest that no dates have been set for any meetings between Dr Mattu and the Trust since 18th September 2002. Indeed he wished to present evidence before the panel, but the Trust refused to allow him to make verbal representations in his defence.
However, recent reports in the media express claims by the Trust and yourself that dates have been set for meetings with Dr Mattu and that he has either failed to turn up or declined the invitations.
Could you please clarify this and provide the dates of recent meetings with which this has occurred with.
You will understand that the recent reports, along with previous claims by elected representatives and the Trust, give the distinct impression that the awful length of Dr Mattu's suspension has been due to his failure to attend meetings.
All this has understandably led to Dr Mattu falling ill and therefore we are mindful not to harass him for any response at this time.
Yours sincerely,
Mr KS Purewal
30th June 2003
Mr David Roberts
Chief Executive Walsgrave Hospital
Dear Mr Roberts,
Our community and its leaders are increasingly worried about the unduly long suspension of Dr Raj Mattu and we are disturbed by the unwillingness of the Trust Chairman to address our concerns.
On 11th June 2003 Mr Stoten informed us that the issues we raised were outside his remit and that you were responsible for the Trust Management's flawed and prejudicial investigation into the allegations against Dr Mattu, and the awful persecution that he continues to face.
Mr Stoten assured us that you would respond to the issues raised in our letters regarding the discriminatory treatment of Dr Mattu and provide an accounting for your previous inaction over this serious matter. You have failed to do so.
Whilst we do not accept Mr Stoten's claims of no involvement in this matter or a Chairman's role, he has passed responsibility for this debacle on to you. Assuming he is correct in blaming you, we expect you to fully respond to the points raised in our letters to Mr Stoten. We enclose copies of our letters and await your urgent reply.
Yours sincerely,
Mr KS Purewal
Cc MPs, councilors, Department of Health, Trevor Phillips.
5th July 2003
Mr David Roberts
Chief Executive Walsgrave Hospital
Dear Mr Roberts,
Re Racism at University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust
We are disappointed by Mr Stoten's unwillingness to co-operate with our genuine and legitimate enquiries into Racism at University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust.
Having taken up your tenure as Chief Executive at our Trust in September 2002, you have been incumbent for almost a year and consequently been managerially responsible for the investigation into and treatment of Dr Mattu during this period.
You will no doubt be aware of the many serious procedural violations that have taken place during the investigation into Dr Mattu. These include the failure of the Trust Executive to:
· Provide Dr Mattu all the witness statements to which he was to respond and that contained the evidence used against him
· Interview over 50% of the witnesses put forward by Dr Mattu, due to incompetence or refusal by the Trust.
· Allow Dr Mattu to complete even a single interview in order to rebut the allegations.
· Accurately record the evidence provided by more than 90% of the witnesses in the summaries that the Trust hade made. Indeed over 90% of these witnesses formally complained, about their evidence having been seriously tampered with.
· Provide more than 90% of these witnesses with an amended summary that incorporated their corrections.
· Constitute a panel in accordance with the Trust and NHS policies and procedures.
· Constitute their panel only with the agreement of Dr Mattu and his advisors.
· Ensure that all the panel members were agreed by all parties.
· Ensure that the panel was indeed truly independent. In fact the panel even included a Trust Board Member, Hilary Scholefield. What's more, she was trained in the same Hospital where the third panel member had taught. In fact Mrs Scholefield's husband had been understudy to the third panel member during his 10 years of training in the same department.
· Allow Dr Mattu to make verbal representations in his own defence before the panel.
· Ensure that the panel was given the authority to fully investigate the issue for itself, rather than rely on the record selectively produced by the Trust to reach a decision.
We have discovered many more examples of irregularities in the investigation into Dr Mattu during your incumbency, and note that the Doctors Chairman on the Senior Staff committee at the Hospital has now "quit over Mattu conspiracy". He also supports our findings by adding that "he had a catalogue of complaints regarding discrepancies in Dr Mattu's case and the issues surrounding it".
You cannot ignore the facts any longer when the leader of the Senior Doctors Committee says "the investigation into allegations of harassment against cardiologist Dr Mattu is unsound and that disciplinary processes have been invented to deal with the complaint"
On 24th June 2003 the Mirror newspaper reported the findings of the BMA, the "NHS IS RACIST". Also, the CHI has been very critical of our Senior Trust Managers for victimising Senior Clinicians who speak out about patient care and creating a culture of fear. We have overwhelming evidence that Dr Mattu has been subject to longstanding victimisation and discrimination by the Trust senior management. Is this motivated by racism?
We formally ask you to detail exactly what steps you have taken to address the issues above and what role you have played in trying to ensure natural justice and decency for Dr Mattu.
We enclose copies of correspondence that we sent to the Chairman, for your attention and personal response. It is because these are extremely serious matters, that we also formally request a piecemeal reply from you, to our letters dated 26th June and 5th July to Mr Stoten.
The Chairman of the Trust has repeatedly held you as accountable and responsible for the breaches and violations that we have described. We therefore ask what you have also done in order to protect staff and patients at our Trust from racism. We require you to give us an honest and complete reply to our concerns by return.
Yours sincerely,
Mr Dilbagh Singh Gill
(Secretary)
Cc Trust Board, Temples, Churches, Buddhist Society, Trades Council, Councilors, MPs, CRE, DoH, BMA, NHS Executive
29th July 2003
Mr David Roberts
Chief Executive Walsgrave Hospital
Dear Mr Roberts,
We are disappointed by your failure to reply to our letter of 5th July 2003 and enclosed correspondence to Mr Stoten. We had hoped that you would be more willing than Mr Stoten to address the legitimate issues surrounding the prejudicial treatment of Dr Mattu by the Trust Management. Our enquiries have revealed serious and worrying concerns about the discriminatory treatment of Dr Raj Mattu and Racism at our NHS Trust.
You will no doubt be aware that Mr Stoten has claimed that addressing the Executive's failure to ensure equal opportunities is outwith his duties. We have studied and enquired about the statutory duties of the Chair, and firmly hold the view that he is wrong and deliberately misleading us. Nonetheless, he rightly holds you accountable and responsible for any failures in due process within the Trust. We listed some of the many serious procedural violations that have occurred during the Trust's investigation into Dr Mattu and expected a full response from you. However, you have been unwilling to assuage our substantive concerns. What have you done to address these extremely serious breaches?
On 5th July we formally asked you to provide a piecemeal reply to all the issues raised with Mr Stoten in our letters to him dated 26th June and 5th July. Mr Stoten has also passed the responsibility for addressing our concerns to you. Your failure to respond or even acknowledge our correspondence is worrying and significant. There can be no reason for not addressing the serious matter of Racism apparent at our NHS Trust. Why have you not addressed our letter? We appear to have mistakenly expected better from the new Chief Executive.
We therefore again ask you address our concerns and expect you to urgently respond fully to all the issues we raise in all our correspondence.
Yours sincerely,
Yours sincerely,
Mr Dilbagh Singh Gill
(Secretary)
Cc Trust Board, Temples, Churches, Buddhist Society, Trades Council, Councillors, MPs, CRE, DoH, BMA, NHS Executive, NHS Appointments Commission
28th June 2003
Mr David Roberts, Chief Executive
UHCW NHS Trust
Dear Mr Roberts,
The lengthy suspension of Dr Raj Mattu is of grave concern to the local community in Coventry. I raised this matter with the Chairman of our Trust Board, Mr Stoten, who delegated responsibility of the flawed, prejudicial investigation into Dr Mattu and procedural breaches as yours, claiming it was not his remit.
Whilst I do not accept this claim, he clearly stated that you were responsible and that you would respond to my concerns. This occurred over 2 weeks ago on 11th June 2003 and I have still to receive an explanation and detailed response to my concerns. Please would you now do me the courtesy of responding fully to the serious issues I have raised in my letters to Mr Stoten.
I enclose copies of my correspondence for your urgent attention and await your early response.
Yours sincerely,
Mr S Nahar
Cc: Mr A Blair MP, Mr I Duncan-Smith MP, Mr C Kennedy MP, Mr A Milburn MP, Dr L Fox MP, Dr E Harris MP, Mr R Ainsworth MP, Mr J Cunningham MP, Mr G Robinson MP, Mr A King MP, Mr W Olner MP, Mr M O'Brien MP, Mr J Plaskitt MP, Mrs C Spellman MP, Mr J Maples MP, NAO, DoH
22nd July 2003
Mr David Roberts, Chief Executive
UHCW NHS Trust
Dear Mr Roberts,
I personally wrote to you almost a month ago, 28th June 2003, about the gross injustice in the suspension of Dr Raj Mattu. I hoped you would respond openly and honestly to valid enquiries, but you have instead elected to ignore them, and not even acknowledged my letter and enclosed correspondence.
I raised the indefensible matter about Dr Mattu suffering discriminatory treatment and victimisation by the Trust, when Mr Stoten claimed it is not within his remit to ensure equal opportunities, but that it is your responsibility. I beg to disagree, and find support for my contention amongst the duties listed for non-Executive Chairs of NHS Trusts. He allegedly passed my letter to you as long as 29th May 2003, and formally notified you of the appalling mistreatment of Dr Mattu. It is therefore significant that whilst you strongly express your commitment and duty to thoroughly investigate and protect staff at the Trust, you do not extend the same enthusiasm or inclination to investigate the abuses that Dr Mattu has suffered, nor investigate them similarly.
Prior to Dr Mattu's suspension, Mr Loughton openly threatened to destroy Dr Mattu's career, and Dr Mattu formally raised grievances of victimisation against Dr Been, Dr A Khan, Dr Evans, Mr Burley, and Mr Cave. Why have none of them been similarly suspended and why are they not being formally investigated?
It is widely known that Dr Been has been canvassing people to register complaints against Dr Mattu, and that he has even urged people to join him in using a private detective against Dr Mattu to help generate more complaints. Does this not alarm you? I would like a formal response as to why are you not formally investigating this horrendous persecution by Dr Been?
You have now been at the Trust for almost a year, and can have absolutely no justification for not addressing the victimisation of Dr Mattu, independently of his own investigation. If you claim no knowledge of these matters, then that is also alarming, as it exposes fundamental problems. These include the partisan mid-grade management that supports you, a legacy of the Loughton era. Mrs K Martin, Director of Human Resources is such an example.
You are ultimately responsible for verifying the reliability of any claims that you may make and any mis-information that you repeat. Similarly, you are liable for the blatantly obvious failures by the Executive to adhere to due process during the investigation into Dr Mattu.
Nonetheless, I formally alerted you and Mr Stoten of the extremely disturbing persecution of Dr Mattu and patiently awaited truthful written replies. You have failed to reply. If I do not now receive a satisfactory response by 29th July 2003, you will understand that I will be left with no option but to report you for personal investigation, particularly your underlying reasons for the continued discriminatory treatment of Dr Mattu, and your conduct towards equality of treatment for ALL staff at the Trust.
Yours sincerely,
Mr S Nahar
Cc: Mr A Blair MP, Mr I Duncan-Smith MP, Mr C Kennedy MP, Mr A Milburn MP, Dr L Fox MP, Dr E Harris MP, Mr R Ainsworth MP, Mr J Cunningham MP, Mr G Robinson MP, Mr A King MP, Mr W Olner MP, Mr M O'Brien MP, Mr J Plaskitt MP, Mrs C Spellman MP, Mr J Maples MP, NAO, DoH, Commission for Racial Equality
