EDITOR'S NOTE: The senior medical director referred to in the story below has asked us to point out that she put evidence before the tribunal to show that Mr Ragheb’s claim about her qualifications was wrong. She says the NHS Trust acknowledges that she holds specialist registration with the General Dental Council and that the relevant law exempts her from registration with the General Medical Council.

AN eye specialist is bringing a claim for racial discrimination against the hospital trust after claiming he was told colleagues ‘didn’t want the department to be run by an Arab’.

Sharif Ragheb, a former locum consultant ophthalmologist, said the unnamed worker made the comments after he raised concerns.

Mr Ragheb, who was dismissed from East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust at the end of April 2009, has taken the NHS body to an industrial tribunal.

He is claiming race discrimination, unfair dismissal, breach of contract and detrimental treatment after making protected disclosures.

The tribunal heard that one of the most serious concerns he highlighted was his belief that a senior medical director did not possess a medical certificate.

Mr Ragheb said that while the director in question was registered with the General Dental Council, she was not on the General Medical Council's specialist register.

He told the tribunal that when he confronted the director after checks with the GMC, she dismissed his concerns.

Earlier Mr Ragheb, who carried out clinics at the Royal Blackburn, Burnley General and Rossendale hospitals, said his problems at the trust had began when he lodged a plagarism complaint regarding one of his colleagues.

He said he had submitted an article to a specialist journal on one of his patients, only to find that the colleague had also made attempts to be published over the same work.

Hospital chiefs will argue at the tribunal that they had already started the process of recruiting two permanent consultant ophthalmologists before Mr Ragheb had raised the plagarism issue.

In a counter-claim, Mr Ragheb says he only found out he was going to be sacked from a secretary, towards the end of 2007.

He said he also felt ‘embarrassed and humiliated’ when he was given a termination letter by Jane Butcher, from the trust’s human resources department shortly before going into theatre.

(Proceeding).

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