NHS surgeon faces sack for saying ‘vile’ Asian colleagues were ‘sub-continent elements’

A TOP NHS surgeon is fighting to save his career after he was recorded calling Asian colleagues vile and saying one of them needed “a good slap”.

Clinical director Peter Hale, 58, was accused of racial prejudice after blasting “sub-continent elements” who had objected to hospital rota changes.

The gastrointestinal expert hit out at three Pakistani doctors and an Indian working under him at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, a tribunal heard.

Hale said the four doctors were a "highly egocentric group" and "their own worst enemy" after they complained they were being treated "like slaves".

He was taped saying: “Some of these sub-continent elements — what you end up with is long-term resentments. They’re their own worst enemies. They’re unbelievable people. Vile actually.’’

He said of one man: “Chill pill? He needs a good slap,” the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester was told yesterday.

Hale, of Hassocks, West Sussex, was reported to hospital trust bosses and sacked for gross misconduct.

He now faces a possible ban from practising medicine after he was referred to the General Medical Council.

Counsel for the GMC told the hearing: “There is no doubt that the four doctors were vocal and occasionally not as polite as they should have been but on the other hand, they were clearly concerned about their jobs and they had the impression that they had been mistreated."

He said Hales comments were clearly "drawing a distance between people based exclusively on their racial differences or alleged racial differences.

“That exhibits a racial prejudice. It’s stereotyping individuals based on their race. The issue is whether it was appropriate for a clinical director to speak in the way in which he did.”

The surgeon, who also faces other misconduct allegations, admits making the comments but denies racial prejudice. Hearing continues.