EDMONTON — The CBC is reporting that a doctor sued the Edmonton health region authority and two senior managers in 2001 for allegedly smearing his reputation and forcing him out of his job.

The lawsuit alleged he complained to the Conservatives under then-premier Ralph Klein and senior bureaucrats about surgery wait times and inadequate resources for his patients.

The CBC says the lawsuit was settled out of court and the terms can’t be disclosed due to a confidentiality agreement.

In his statement of claim, Dr. Ciaran (KEAR’-in) McNamee alleged that when he spoke out in 1999 about the adverse effects of health cuts, he was told “his advocacy would no longer be tolerated.”

McNamee was the head of thoracic surgery for the Edmonton region at the time.

McNamee also claimed his colleagues were told he was unfit to practice and his wife and former secretary were told he needed emergency psychiatric treatment.

Capital Health and the two senior officials named in the suit denied all the allegations.

Independent MLA Raj Sherman has accused doctors and health officials of a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme to cover up 250 patient deaths on a surgery wait list in the early years of the last decade.

He has promised, but failed, to provide evidence.

Sherman told the CBC that McNamee was not one of the doctors he talked to.

McNamee now works at a Boston hospital and teaches at Harvard.