London: After successfully winning a libel case against a leading hospital in London, a non-resident Indian (NRI) doctor, Geeta Nargund has rejoined the Hospital in South London.

The 44-year old doctor who rejoined yesterday (Jan 22, 2004) was director of the Diana, Princess of Wales fertility centre at St George's Hospital, before she was forced to stand down her 80,000 Pounds a year post in October 2002.

In a statement, the Hospital said it was "delighted" Geeta Nargund was coming back as a consultant in reproductive medicine and praised her "skills, expertise and commitment".

However, it refused to explain why its medical director had previously implied that Dr Nargund ran a chaotic unit and had, in part, been responsible for a serious mix-up of Invitro Fertilisation embryos.

It also refused to confirm how much it had spent on the case, but denied it had reached one million Pounds.

The hospital has never given a reason for her suspension. However, professor Paul Jones, the hospital's medical director, implied at the time that it was because her unit was badly run and that the embryo mix-up has been due to her poor management. He said the clinic was "chaotic" and "mistakes were waiting to happen".

In the first case of its kind, Dr Nargund successfully brought libel proceedings against the hospital and accepted about 100,000 Pounds in damages plus costs.

Dr Nargund said at the time that she had only taken legal action because the trust had refused to apologise.

St George's had to agree that there was never any lack of "professional skill, competence skill, ability or expertise" on Dr Nargund's part.

A report by the National Audit Office has identified 1,000 suspended frontline NHS staff in a 14-month period to July 2002.

The office estimates that each year this costs the NHS an extra 29 million Pounds in employing cover staff and in legal and management costs and another 11 million Pounds for the salaries of suspended staff.