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Mr. Agrawal's Case: Cruel Or Charcoal?

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Indian-born liver surgeon Mr Agrawal, 43, worked at both the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General Hospitals. He was sent home on full pay in 2011 after he spoke out alleged dangerous working practices at his hospital. During his suspension, he contacted Labour MP Lucy Powell and Tory Sir Peter Bottomley. On 2 June 2015, Sir Peter raised Mr Agrawal’s case in the House of Commons. East Lancashire Hospitals Trust sacked Mr Agrawal on 9 July 2015. The Trust stated the reason for the dismissal is his professional relationship with his medical colleagues had broken down before his suspension. He had been suspended from his £70,000-plus-a-year consultant’s post for about four years. On the 28 September 2015, a special panel at East Lancashire Hospitals …show more content…

He claimed that a new shift system had caused at least one death and one unnecessary operation taking place, and said that he and a small number of consultants were overworked and patient safety and continuity of care were compromised. The claimant had told the Manchester hearing he raised his concerns about the new ‘Consultant of the Day’ system with the trust clinical director Mr Watson and then the trust medical director Mrs Schram; however, he was reprimanded and told not to voice concerns again. The consultant said he was then investigated over a series of ‘malicious, vexatious and frivolous’ allegations and ‘imaginary deaths and complications had been conjured up’ to create a case against him. He believed that the investigation and the process from the beginning was about punishment for raising his clinical concerns, and he argued that the investigation did not examining the veracity’ of the allegations against …show more content…

Mrs Salaman told to the Manchester hearing that she did not have a clue whether Mr Agrawal has been treated unfairly because of his raising patient safety concerns or because of his race. She defended the new shift system imposed by trust clinical director Rob Watson and she strongly denied that the new roster was in fact unsafe. She stated that the rota has been used over the last five years in the trust and the general surgical consultants have supported its continued use. Moreover, she mentioned that several consultants might have initial concerns about whether the new roaster will increase their workload; however, it was part of consultant surgeon’s responsibilities to carry out the overnight on-call duty before a day in the operating theatre. Mrs Salaman had no evidence to support Mr Agrawal’s concerns about patient safety and medical workloads. According to Lancashire Telegraph, clinical director Rob Watson, responsible for devising the new emergency rota at the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General Hospitals, explained that the system had been 'recognised as a safe model of care' by the Care Quality Commission. Mr Watson denied Mr Agrawal's claims and told the tribunal he had developed serious concerns about Mr Agrawal's attitude, behaviour and clinical performance (Jacobs, 2016). He stated that he told the medical director Rineke Schram that he would not be able to work

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