The intervention follows claims from senior hospital doctors that colleagues have been subjected to breaches of human rights by NHS trusts.

In these cases, hospital authorities have suspended doctors on receipt of a complaint about them before any attempt is made to establish the facts.

Dr Peter Tomlin, secretary of the Society of Clinical Psychiatrists, told the British Medical Association's annual conference in Cardiff that 157 doctors had been suspended in such circumstances, costing the tax payer �50 million.

He said doctors had been locked out of hospitals, but were under virtual house arrest because they had to be available for work. Their freedom of speech was also curtailed.

Damage done

Dr Tomlin said: "The present dispute system used against hospital doctors is riddled with human rights abuses.

Doctors can be suspended for years while a claim is investigated

"It is claimed by the Department of Health that a suspension is a neutral process.

"It is difficult to relate that to being locked out of their hospitals and prevented from doing any other kind of work.

"The problem is that health authorities suspend on receipt of an allegation and then decide to investigate. By that time the damage to a doctor's reputation is done.

"Then because they are scared of being sued for defamation they bend over backwards to find a justification for the suspension."

Dr Tomlin said he had taken the matter to the UN because of inaction by the government.

Suspended for four years

Consultant pathologist Dr Bernard Charnley has been suspended from his post at the Prince Charles Hospital at Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, for the past four years while an investigation is carried out into a complaint that he inaccurately reported the results of cervical screening tests. Nothing has yet been proved.

"I feel I have been subjected to a sentence that has no obvious end. It could carry on indefinitely," he said.

Dr Charnley drew comparisons with heart surgeon Dr Janardan Dhasmana, recently suspended from his post for three years by the General Medical Council after he was found culpable for the deaths of babies who underwent surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary.

"I have been totally prevented from practising for a longer period than that, and I feel I have suffered a great injustice as a consequence."