Vince Cable

Hundreds of local residents have signed a petition for the reinstatement of Dr Roberts, a popular and respected consultant cardiologist, who was sacked by Kingston Hospital over two years ago but has recently been vindicated by an Employment Tribunal.

The Doctor was dismissed after allegations that he used equipment from his private clinic to help one of his NHS patients. Although NHS fraud investigators found that he had no case to answer, he was sacked by the Hospital and the General Medical Council, acting on advice from the Hospital, restricted his freedom to practice. However, the Tribunal found him blameless and the Hospital administrators to have been guilty of "grotesquely unjust treatment". So far, however, Dr Roberts has not been reinstated and the Hospital has been resisting reinstatement.

Vincent Cable MP said: "Last week one of his former patients, Joan Ramsey, came to my advice surgery very upset at the way he had been treated and with a petition of hundreds of residents who had found him a fine, caring doctor. They are outraged at the way unaccountable bureaucrats were able to pursue a vindictive campaign and ruin his career. They have asked me to help them secure his reinstatement subject to the final determination of the Industrial Tribunal on 30th September. I have also written to Alan Johnson MP, the Health Minister, to ask what action he proposes to take in respect of the Directors of the Trust who were party to the dismissal which the Tribunal concluded was "more reprehensible than crass incompetence."