A former NHS chief executive has been awarded \u00a31.4m in damages after suing the health service for unfair dismissal.<\/p>\n
Dr Susan Gilby took the Countess of Chester NHS Trust to court after being suspended in December 2022.<\/p>\n
The compensation is one of the largest payments the NHS has ever made to a former employee.<\/p>\n
The final cost to the taxpayer – including court costs – could be around \u00a33m after the trust refused offers to avoid the case going to court.<\/p>\n
Gilby told the BBC she was relieved the case was over and that this \u00ab\u00a0was never about the money.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
The Countess of Chester NHS Trust – where Lucy Letby worked – confirmed that a settlement had been agreed.<\/p>\n
The compensation payment comes after an employment tribunal ruled in February last year that board members at the trust had conspired to remove her from her job.<\/p>\n
Gilby had accused the trust’s chairman, Ian Haythornthwaite, of bullying and harassment.<\/p>\n
In response, Haythornthwaite, working alongside three other directors, had set up Project Countess, to force Gilby out.<\/p>\n
Gilby, 62, said one of the trust’s directors, Ros Fallon, took her to a pub on a Friday afternoon in October 2022 and told her it was \u00ab\u00a0time for you to go\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0She said: ‘And if you don’t agree to go, we will start a process against you’. She was unable to tell me what that process would be.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Gilby said she was initially offered a pay-off – the equivalent of 16 months of her salary – while she did \u00ab\u00a0a non-job\u00a0\u00bb with NHS England.<\/p>\n
But she said the offer had a sting in the tail.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I had to drop my concerns, drop my grievance, about the behaviours of Ian Haythornthwaite, and for me, that was an absolute red line.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0The idea that I would walk away and this would never be mentioned again, was absolutely unpalatable to me.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself knowing that I had taken effectively a bribe.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Gilby had been appointed chief executive in September 2018 just weeks after Lucy Letby, who worked at the trust, had been arrested.<\/p>\n
She was praised for guiding the trust through the pandemic, but in 2021, Haythornthwaite was appointed chairman and Gilby says her job became increasingly difficult.<\/p>\n
Following her refusal to accept the trust’s offer to walk away quietly, in December 2022, she was suspended.<\/p>\n
Gilby promptly resigned and launched legal action.<\/p>\n
The tribunal found she had never been presented with the reasons for her suspension and that the trust had instead \u00ab\u00a0built up a sham case\u00a0\u00bb against her.<\/p>\n
As well as the damages, the trust is likely to have to pay a substantial portion of her legal fees, on top of the costs of their own lawyers and barristers.<\/p>\n
The total cost to the NHS, to taxpayers, is estimated therefore to be around \u00a33m.<\/p>\n
Letters seen by the BBC show that Gilby’s legal team tried to avert a court hearing, which would have saved a substantial amount of money.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We were just met with an absolute wall in terms of any willingness to have a conversation about bringing this to a close,\u00a0\u00bb says Gilby.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It was effectively chequebook litigation, and the perpetrators were able to do this because it wasn’t their own chequebook, it wasn’t a business in which they had a financial interest.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It’s quite sickening to think that people with those values are able to get positions in senior positions in public bodies,\u00a0\u00bb she added.<\/p>\n
Haythornthwaite resigned on the day the employment tribunal published its judgement.<\/p>\n
Two other members of Project Countess, directors Fallon and Nicola Price, had left the trust by then and are no longer working in public life.<\/p>\n
A fourth member of the Project, Ken Gill, has also left the trust.<\/p>\n
He now has a role as a non-executive director of the Legal Aid Agency, a Ministry of Justice quango, for which he is paid between \u00a310,000-\u00a315,000, according to their annual report.<\/p>\n
The Agency told the BBC that despite the criticisms made of him by the employment tribunal, \u00ab\u00a0we have concluded Mr Gill is fit to continue his role\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
The British Medical Association, which supported Gilby throughout, including with legal fees, said the award was testament to her \u00ab\u00a0determination and bravery\u00a0\u00bb but said the law needed to change.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It remains clear that the protections afforded to doctors raising concerns are woefully inadequate and legislation in this area is still not fit for purpose,\u00a0\u00bb the BMA said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We need to see radical change in how whistleblowers are protected and treated in the NHS.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Gilby, who had previously been a medic, a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care, hoped she had several years to go working for the health service before she was forced out. Despite the employment tribunal finding comprehensively in her favour, she fears her career in the health service is now over.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It’s had a devastating impact, if I’m honest,\u00a0\u00bb she says. \u00ab\u00a0I’ve felt extremely isolated, and definitely feel that I am regarded as a pariah in the NHS. I think there is an unwritten rule that you do not take the NHS to court. You don’t stand up and be counted. You take the bribe, you keep quiet and you move on.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Her hope now is that other people subjected to bullying and harassment will see the outcome of her case and have the courage to come forward and that \u00ab\u00a0other organisations who are thinking of treating their employees in the way in which I was treated think twice.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
In a brief statement, the Countess of Chester NHS Trust \u00ab\u00a0the Trust can confirm that the employment tribunal has been resolved through a mutually agreed settlement.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former NHS chief executive has been awarded \u00a31.4m in damages after suing the health service for unfair dismissal. Dr Susan Gilby took the Countess of Chester NHS Trust to court after being suspended in December 2022. The compensation is one of the largest payments the NHS has ever made to a former employee. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}