Consultant cardiologist convinces judge she is too ill to attend and case cannot be listed until next spring

Dr Usha Prasad, the whistleblower consultant cardiologist, yesterday won her argument that she was too ill, because of mental stress, to defend herself at another employment tribunal brought by Epsom and St Helier University NHS Trust without even having to attend the hearing.

The trust which originally wanted her to pay £180,000 costs- reduced in August to £24,000 – sought this week to strike out all her claims, including her whistleblowing case that an elderly man who died at the hospital was ” an avoidable death” which was never reported to the coroner.

The hearing was also set to go ahead tomorrow with remote links already sent out to people observing the case this afternoon when acting regional employment judge Katharine Andrews suddenly cancelled the hearing. This is the second time in two months hearings brought by the trust have been cancelled by a judge.

The costs hearing in August was cancelled when the tribunal met because according to judge Mrs E J R McLaren one of the panel members to hear the case could not attend. Dr Prasad had sent a letter from her GP saying she was under severe stress but another regional judge had rejected this.

This time Dr Prasad sent a fresh letter from her GP saying she was still under severe stress as a result of this long running case involving the trust.

In her letter the judge says: “This hearing was first listed for 6 April 2023. The claimant’s application to postpone that hearing was refused although it did not in any event proceed as there was insufficient judicial resource available. Accordingly it was relisted to be heard on 6 June 2023. That hearing was then postponed at the claimant’s request as she was unavailable due to a professional commitment and also at the request of the respondent who considered that a one day hearing was required. The matter was then listed for one day to be heard tomorrow, 18 October 2023.

On 29 September 2023 the claimant applied to postpone tomorrow’s hearing due to her ill-health. That application was refused as the medical evidence enclosed within her application was insufficient.
The claimant has today repeated her application and enclosed a medical note (apparently from her GP) that does confirm that she is unfit to attend and that a delay of 3 to 4 months would enable her health to improve sufficiently.
The respondent has objected to the request referring to previous postponement requests by the claimants and costs they have incurred that will be wasted.
In all the circumstances the claimant’s application to postpone is granted and the hearing will be re-listed not before 1 March 2024. Any further applications by the claimant for a postponement are extremely unlikely to be granted. It is open to the respondent to make an application for wasted costs in due course if they believe that to be appropriate’ .”

Epsom and St Helier University Health trust have been fighting Dr Prasad for years and strongly objected to the hearing being postponed.

The regional judge who took the decision last heard one of her original tribunal cases in December 2020 when a tribunal was asked to rule again about the action of a fellow Indian doctor Dr Aran Kumar Perikala who wrote anonymous letters to the trust’s chief executive, the CQC, the GMC and Jeremy Hunt then health secretary, saying she was a danger to patient safety. He was unmasked but the trust did not take any action against him. Dr Prasad claimed he was sexist. The judge rejected this but ruled that he had behaved “unprofessionally ” by his actions. You can read my account of this bizarre hearing here. The whistleblowing allegations emerged at another hearing later.

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