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By Karen Hambridge, Coventry Evening Telegraph
Hospital chiefs in Coventry have admitted the cost of heart doctor Raj Mattu's 20-month suspension is already more than a quarter of a million pounds.
Salary money, locum fees and legal expenses have pushed the amount of money spent in pursuing the case against the Walsgrave Hospital cardiologist to £275,000.
The figure is revealed in a letter from David Roberts, chief executive of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, to campaigning MPs Jim Cunningham and Geoffrey Robinson.
The Labour MPs have been pressing for a resolution to the case for some weeks, raising questions in the House of Commons and writing to local and national NHS chiefs. One response from a letter to David Roberts resulted in the cost of the case being laid bare.
Other replies have made it clear the trust is pursuing disciplinary procedures, on the advice of the National Clinical Assessment Authority, after failing to secure Dr Mattu's sanction of a compromise agreement offered by them.
The letter, dictated by trust chairman Bryan Stoten, says: "You will realise this matter continues to consume disproportionate amounts of time and energy but we have no option but to follow the advice of the NCAA now, and this we are doing.
"I am sorry that we appear unable to do more than go through the full process requested of us but you will understand that we really are now between a rock and a hard place."
The letter has not placated the MPs who still believe a compromise can and should be reached.
Mr Robinson, Coventry North-west MP, said: "The trust says it offered a compromise. How can it do that? A compromise has to be agreed between two parties. Surely a compromise means both sides dropping the claims against one another and not apportioning blame?
"I am not convinced the trust is serious about a true compromise. It may be that the agreement it offered to Dr Mattu maintained blame on his part, which obviously he is not going to accept, particularly after all this time."
He added that he was still trying to find out if the cost of the case included payments to a coronary specialist he understood had been recruited to do some of Dr Mattu's work but who lived in Weston-Super-Mare.
Dr Mattu was suspended on full pay in February last year amid allegations of bullying a junior colleague.
His supporters claim he is being victimised for speaking out on overcrowding practices on Walsgrave wards which he believed contributed to the deaths of two patients.
