Letby hospital forced whistleblower out of her job, tribunal rules
A former NHS boss and 'whistleblower' at the hospital where Lucy Letby murdered seven babies was bullied out of her job, an employment tribunal has found.
Dr Susan Gilby became chief executive at the Countess of Chester Hospital in September 2018, two months after Letby was first arrested, the Liverpool tribunal was told.
Dr Gilby, a consultant anaesthetist, told the tribunal that despite navigating the Covid-19 pandemic and improving the running of the hospital, she encountered difficulties when Ian Haythornthwaite, a former BBC accountant, became chairman of its board in 2021.
She claimed she was 'harassed and intimidated' by Mr Haythornthwaite, whom she accused of putting the financial security of the hospital before patient care.
She later 'blew the whistle' about her concerns about him and was suspended before she eventually resigned from her job in 2022.
Now her claim of unfair dismissal has been upheld. Judge Dawn Shotter, who chaired the tribunal, ruled that Mr Haythornthwaite and three other senior figures at the hospital worked together to remove Dr Gilby from her post.
Dr Gilby is expected to be awarded more than £1 million in compensation.
She told the hearing that in 2022 Mr Haythornthwaite launched a 'fierce verbal attack' upon her during which he 'banged his hand on the table' to emphasise things he claimed were 'wrong' with her, according to Mail Online.
She said his alleged behaviour was 'bullying, pure and simple', adding that the board was obsessed with imposing cuts at the hospital which, she felt, compromised patient safety.
At one point, she said, after she returned to work after a period of being signed off with stress, a non-executive director told her it was 'time to go'.
By then, the Letby trial at Manchester Crown Court had begun and she felt it was an inappropriate time to leave. She was formally suspended in December that year.
Dr Gilby said: 'I believe that I was pushed out of a role that I wanted to dedicate the last years of a 30-year unblemished healthcare record to because I had blown the whistle on the controlling and bullying behaviour of the leader of a group of finance specialists, many of whom are still in post at the Countess, and were hell bent on putting finances over patient care.'
Speaking after the tribunal verdict, Dr Gilby said the last few years had been 'nothing short of torture at times', adding: 'My career has been taken from me with no justification and the financial losses we have suffered are significant.'
She added that she had put her 'faith in the judicial system' after refusing to compromise her integrity.
Mr Haythornthwaite, 65, said: 'I have made the decision to step down with immediate effect from my role as chair of the trust.'
A spokesman for the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said it acknowledged the outcome of the tribunal and would review the judge's findings.
Letby, 35, was convicted of the murder of seven babies and attempting to murder seven more in the hospital's neo-natal unit between 2015 and 2016.
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