Top Brighton hospital consultant sacked for racism is cleared

But a tribunal has found Peter Hale was not racially motivated when he used the phrase “sub-continent elements” during a discussion about other doctors.

The leading digestive diseases consultant with an unblemished record was sacked in January 2015 by the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton over remarks deemed by his employer to be racist. But the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) has disagreed with that assessment, finding his comments only “derogatory, dismissive and inappropriate”.

The panel noted the comments were made following a toxic staff meeting in which other doctors had made accusations of racism and slavery.

They said: "Whatever their grievances may have been, they were not appropriate comments to have made at that meeting.

"Their conduct at the meeting followed similar behaviour towards you and other staff members over a period of time.

“The tribunal was satisfied that against that background your comments were not motivated by racial prejudice, but rather in response to the conduct of the complainants both during and prior to the meeting."

Separately, an employment tribunal is expected to rule soon on Mr Hale’s case against Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust for unfair dismissal and racial discrimination, heard in May.

Yesterday a former colleague of his said the doctor had been treated unfairly by a trust scared of accusations of racism, while patients also spoke out in his support.

Mr Hale was referred to the General Medical Council by four doctors in his department, of Indian and Pakistani origin: Khawaja Zia, Ved Prakash, Vivek Kaul and Christi Swaminathan.

They alleged he failed to show respect for colleagues; had been unfairly discriminatory; on one occasion motivated by racial prejudice; and aggressive towards a colleague.

Mr Hale has always denied his comments were racist, stressing the issue of race had been introduced at the meeting by the complainants.

The MPTS panel dismissed allegations from one of the complainants that Mr Hale had made comments including “you’re getting older, you should be taking weekends off,” or was discriminatory towards him.

The tribunal also noted the meeting in December 2013, when the allegedly racist comments were made, had been covertly recorded by the complainants and followed a meeting about staff rota changes in which the “colleagues you were talking about had not shown respect to you”.

It found that when he referred to a “highly ego-centric group,” he was referring not just to the complainants, and when he said “they don’t know what they want,” he was not referring to an ethnic group.

Panel members said his comment that a complainant "needs a good slap" was disrespectful, as was his describing the complainants as "vile". They added his use of the word “elements” after “subcontinent” showed a dismissive attitude towards the complainants.

But they added: “Your comments followed a heated and antagonistic meeting at which the complainants made a number of unprofessional and personal comments which included accusations of racism and slavery."

The panel also found he had not suggested a nurse was the sort of person who would deliberately avoid delaying flying back to work from Nigeria.

But they found he had been aggressive towards a colleague in February 2014, but had not threatened her.

The panel said his fitness to practice was not impaired and that the matters found proved did not amount to misconduct.

The four doctors who referred Mr Hale to the GMC had their own case for racial discrimination against the trust thrown out last year after they were found to have secretly recorded a private meeting between the trust's lawyers about their case.

The trust declined to comment yet other than to stress the MPTS panel is unrelated to the employment tribunal hearing.

TOP FLIGHT SURGEON’S GLITTERING CAREER IS NOW TARNISHED

PETER Hale’s sacking marked an abrupt bump in a shining career.

He had been working at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS trust as a consultant surgeon since 1995.

In 2011 he was appointed to lead the digestive diseases department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital following a critical report about the department by the Royal College of Physicians.

But with several doctors unhappy about their contracts, the work they had been doing and the changes he brought in, relations in the department were often strained.

Trust-grade doctors Khawaja Zia, Ved Prakash, Vivek Kaul and Christi Swaminathan, who had come to work in the trust from India and Pakistan, were angry about, in their view, being unfairly kept on short-term contracts by the trust and held back from work they wanted.

Relations had reached such a low point by the time of a meeting in December 2013 that they secretly recorded Mr Hale talking with other staff members following a heated staff meeting about rota changes.

The meeting had not started well, with one of the doctors accusing Mr Hale of treating them like slave labour, something they had accused him of before and that he hated.

He later told a fitness to practise panel that the accusation had a particular effect on him as he had recently visited the USA and found the effect of slavery on southern towns “haunting”.

With a recording device on the table when the four doctors had left, Mr Hale vented his frustration.

“In this – some of these subcontinent elements what you end up with is long term resentments and grievances and all sorts of stuff,” he said, adding: “They are their own worst enemies.”

He said one of the four doctors “needs a good slap” and referred to them as an “an unbelievable group of people. Vile actually”.

The consequences were swift and devastating. The four doctors complained to the trust about those comments and other alleged behaviour, which commissioned an investigation.

The investigator from Vista Employment Services dismissed 13 of the doctors’ complaints against Mr Hale but found he did have a case to answer for racial discrimination.

Despite his insistence the remarks were not racist, Mr Hale was dismissed for gross misconduct on January 8, 2015.

Months earlier his employers, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust, had been urged to improve race relations in a critical report from the Care Quality Commission, the health watchdog.

Inspectors found that while the trust was working on racial equality programmes, its BME (black and minority ethnic) Network group was not convinced about its commitment to the cause and relations were strained.

In 2008, the trust’s then chief executive, Duncan Selbie, had issued a public apology for failing to recognise the BME Network’s chairwoman, Vivien Lyfar-Cisse.

Acting chief executive Chris Adcock later said that at the time the trust had been “failing in both our legal and moral obligation to promote race equality and tackle racism in all its forms”.

For some supporters of Mr Hale, this context is important.

Speaking after the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service decided last week it did not think Mr Hale’s comments were racist, a former colleague of his said: “I think the trust is terrified of claims of racism against the trust and they have got to be seen to be doing the right thing.

“It’s also because the CQC marked this problem with racism. I don’t think the trust has any idea how to cope; it just does not know what to do. ”

The former colleague, who The Argus agreed not to name, added: “Peter Hale was found not guilty of racism by MPTS and that pours egg on the trust’s face and that he has been treated appallingly.

“This guy was the best surgeon in the hospital and yes he was a bit bombastic and yes said some silly things sometimes but he is not racist.

“He is an excellent doctor and a superb surgeon and the trust has ruined his career in his late fifties.”

Last October The Argus attended a meeting of the trust’s BME Network in which several doctors and nurses took to the microphone to recount experiences of racial discrimination at work.

They took a vote of no confidence in the trust’s leadership, at the time headed by Matthew Kershaw, who has since moved on to another trust.

Strongly refuting the claims by the BME Network at the time, a trust spokeswoman said it was confident policies relating to discrimination issues were “fairly applied”.

She added: “There are many recent examples where we have taken serious disciplinary action in cases where race discrimination has been identified and we will continue to do so.”

She said the trust committed substantial resources to race equality and to supporting the BME Network.

The employment tribunal has yet to rule on Mr Hale’s claim against the trust for unfair dismissal and race discrimination.

He has argued the trust treated him differently as a white doctor compared with the four Asian doctors whose behaviour he has criticised.

Some patients, meanwhile, feel they are worse off in his absence.

One elderly woman, who asked not to be named, said: “I cannot praise him highly enough as a surgeon and he was just a thoroughly nice man. When we heard he was in trouble we sent a message to him giving our support because we know he would never deliberately make racist remarks.

“We were just terribly sad. Just a waste of a brilliant career – we have not got that many people of that calibre.”

Another, Jean Winter, 81, said: “How he treated me and how he treated my husband was absolutely ace.

“He would walk into the ward and say good morning and good afternoon and he would treat people with respect. I requested him for my last operation.

“He certainly would not have been colour-prejudiced, no way.”