The NHS has spent more than £1 million on an A&E consultant after keeping him suspended for more than six years.
Dr Richard MacCallum – cleared in 2020 of sexual impropriety with patients – languished at home on full pay while colleagues at NHS Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert were overrun by Covid.
He remains off as the current NHS crisis ravages A&E departments.
While MacCallum collects more than £115,000 a year for basic salary, some locum A&E consultants get up to £1500 a day.
MacCallum has been suspended so long he has completed an honours degree in law.
NHS Forth Valley said he will remain suspended until the end of its own internal investigations. These are meant to take 32 weeks, however the probe has now continued for more than 300 weeks.
One friend of the doctor, who lives in Dollar, Clackmannanshire, said: “It’s pretty insane.
“When the story broke about Richard he was painted as some kind of sexual predator but he was exonerated by the the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.
“NHS Forth Valley has made noises about having higher standards than the GMC but it seems that he is being punished without being found guilty.”
Another source added: “He has been desperate to get back. There has been an exodus of staff and the hospital. There are locums able to charge well over £100 an hour.”
MacCallum was accused by two patients of sharing sexual trysts in 2016 but a tribunal found the claims were baseless.
In 2021, Forth Valley was the worst performing health board for A&E.
Scottish Lib Dems leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “Health budgets are under immense pressure so I hope that NHS Forth Valley are working as fast as possible to bring this investigation to a close.”
An NHS Forth Valley spokesman said: “A member of medical staff remains off work pending the outcome of an ongoing internal investigation”.
MacCallum said he was unable to comment.
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