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By James McCarthy, Coventry Evening Telegraph
COVENTRY MPs Jim Cunningham and Geoffrey Robinson have written to heart doctor Raj Mattu to demand he puts the report into his suspension in the public domain.
Dr Mattu was suspended from the city's Walsgrave Hospital more than four years ago after allegations he bullied a junior colleague. The inquiry into the affair has cost taxpayers more than £1.4million.
The MPs' move follows revelations in last week's Evening Telegraph that Dr Mattu was keeping the report secret on the advice of lawyers.
In the letter signed by Mr Cunningham (Lab, Coventry South) and Mr Robinson (Lab, Coventry North-west) the two MPs state: "We are dismayed at what we understand to be your legal advice that you should not agree to the publication of the tribunal's report.
"We believe that the public interest demands publication and we are conscious that at earlier stages of the inquiry you had committed yourself to agreeing to this, once the procedure was completed.
"If there are really compelling legal reasons against your agreeing to publication, then, in our view, you or your legal team should make a full public statement as to the grounds for that decision."
Dr Mattu was unavailable to comment.
Mr Robinson and Mr Cunningham have also written to Walsgrave Hospital chief executive David Roberts, saying: "It would be helpful if you could give us in writing your categorical assurance that the [NHS] trust, for its part, is prepared to publish the whole report, including its conclusions and recommendations.
"It would be most helpful if the trust could confirm that it will accept and implement the recommendations of the tribunal in full."
Dr Mattu's solicitors, RadcliffesLeBrasseur, in London, advised the contents of the report should remain confidential, at least until the disciplinary process had been completed.
"We reached that conclusion because we wished to avoid the risk to the disciplinary process."
