Top doctor Dr Kamran Abbas sues Manchester Hospital for race discrimination

A respected consultant anaesthetist has issued a legal claim after alleging that he had been subjected to discrimination at the NHS hospital he works at in Manchester.

Dr Kamran Abbas issued his claim for direct race discrimination in the Employment Tribunal after he claimed that he had been treated in a discriminatory fashion after he was demoted from a prestigious post at the Manchester Royal Infirmary.

Dr Abbas has given evidence to the Employment Tribunal that both he and consultant surgeon Mr Jarrod Homer were given final written warnings after an aggressive verbal altercation outside a surgery theatre but that  he was demoted from his role as Clinical Director of Anaesthesia whereas Mr Homer was not and, further, that the Manchester Royal Infirmary supported Mr Homer’s award of a professorship at the University of Manchester.

The verbal altercation occurred at the Manchester Royal Infirmary in April last year after Mr Homer asked for his preferred anaesthetist to undertake an operation with him, rather than Dr Abbas, as Mr Homer incorrectly believed that Dr Abbas was responsible for the death of a patient the year before. Both consultants told each other to “f*** off” before the confrontation became physical. After the incident the management staff at the hospital suspended both Dr Abbas and Mr Homer and they were subsequently given final written warnings as a result of their misconduct. However, Dr Abbas claims that the panel at the disciplinary hearing in May 2013 was “bordering on the sycophantic” to Mr Homer, while Dr Abbas was subjected to a “kangaroo court”, that he was spoken to “rudely”, that he was questioned “aggressively”, and that Dr Abbas believed that a decision had been made before the panel heard the evidence.

Dr Abbas stated in his witness statement to the Employment Tribunal: “It is my absolute belief that the sanction that was imposed on me was so much greater than that imposed on Jarrod Homer, in circumstances where his sanction must and should have been far greater than mine, was down to the fact that I was the only British Asian/BME individual in the room.” Dr Abbas has also accused the Central Manchester University Hospitals Foundation Trust of being “institutionally racist”.

Dr Abbas has not commented on the case at this stage.

A spokeswoman for the Central Manchester University Hospitals Foundation Trust declined to comment on the case.

Chris Hadrill, a specialist employment solicitor at Redmans, commented on the case: “In order to succeed with his case Dr Abbas must show that he has been treated less favourably than Mr Homer and, crucially, that the reason for any less favourable treatment is the fact that he has British Asian/BME. The Employment Tribunal will decide this issue after all the evidence has been heard.”

The Employment Tribunal hearing continues.