Joint statement made by the Susan Allison and the Trust in relation to the resolution of her claims against the Trust for whistleblowing detriment.
Aaron Cummins, Chief Executive, UHMBT, said: “Until recently, Sue Allison, one of the Trust’s former Advanced Practitioners in Breast Radiology, has been pursuing a number of Employment Tribunal claims against the Trust that she had been subjected to detriments as a consequence of having made protected disclosures relating to patient safety within the Trust’s Breast Screening Unit from 2012. Sue also presented a claim to the Tribunal that this behaviour led to her resignation in October 2019.
“The Trust has always accepted that Sue made a number of protected disclosures during the course of her employment and thanked her for bringing her concerns to the Trust’s attention.It is disclosures of this type which lead to us being able to identify and explore potential issues and where an investigation proves that there may be an issue, to improve patient safety. The safety and care of our patients is our absolute priority. We strongly encourage staff to come forward if they think patients may be in any way at risk, so we can investigate and learn from any mistakes.
“The claims presented by Sue tell a compelling narrative of poor employee experience, of feeling professionally isolated, unsupported, not valued, not listened to, bullied, victimised, blacklisted and passed over for career advancement opportunities. This is her account (there are alternative versions) but it is no less valid because of those alternative versions of events and we have recognised that the experience she has had has not been as good as it should have been and has been very stressful for both Sue and her family.
“Regardless of the rights, wrongs or otherwise of the situation in which Sue found herself and the claims which she brought against the Trust, we can't ignore that this is how she has experienced her time working for the Trust and why she is in her current position.
“We openly engaged with Sue and her lawyers in a mediation session in mid-February 2020 and we recently reached a positive resolution to the claims. That has included some financial recompense to support Sue in her future career aspirations and, much more importantly, what we hope to be a positive future for Sue which will also benefit the Trust, our staff and our patients.
“Sue and I have had a number of conversations about her career path moving forward and Sue has chosen to take her experiences and to use them to help others who may find themselves in a similar situation of having concerns which they want to raise with their employer. Sue is now actively involved in the formation of a consultancy to provide services to public bodies in order to help them with Freedom to Speak Up issues. We hope that this will help to actively encourage people to speak out about patient safety concerns they have even more so than they already do and that it helps improve the experience of those who do speak up where they have concerns.
“We are not aware of any current concerns regarding the Breast Screening Unit. The CQC (the independent health watchdog) rates the Trust as ‘requires improvement’ overall and ‘good’ for the care we provide and we have worked hard in recent years to change our culture and encourage staff to raise concerns.”
Sue Allison, said: “I suffered considerable bullying and detriment by managers and colleagues following raising patient safety concerns in 2012. This behaviour resulted in the destruction of my career and reputation and led to me entering into a Settlement Agreement in 2015 which was eventually deemed unenforceable by a Tribunal.
“My main concern when I took out my claim in 2018 was to draw this situation to the attention of the public, patients and employees. I felt the toxic managerial culture which I experienced was not only a huge risk to the safety of patients and staff but that public money was being squandered tocover up bad practice and to persecute and gag whistleblowers.
“I do not wish further public funds to be spent, by the Trust, defending my claim in a full tribunal. I believe this is not ethical use of public money; this is money which should be spent on patient care.
“A preliminary hearing in April 2019 found in my favour that the settlement agreement I had entered into in 2015 was unenforceable as my advisor hadn’t given me proper advice. It also found in respect of a limited number of my other claims which the Trust had sought to have struck out that I had a ‘prima facie’ case of whistleblowing detriment; this paved the way for me to take my claim to a full tribunal and to present the full extent of the bullying and detriment I have experienced.
“The Preliminary Hearing drew attention to my case and the plight of many whistleblowers who are never heard and it opened the door for other whistleblowers to challenge settlement agreements. After my Hearing the Daily Telegraph reported my case together with a promise made by Matt Hancock that NHS whistleblowers should not be prevented or be caused detriment for raising patient safety concerns.
“I relied heavily on family and friends to raise the necessary funds for my legal costs through the last 18 months of my claim and would not have been able to continue without the kind and generous contributions of my CrowdJustice supporters.
“I wish to continue challenging toxic management practices especially in the NHS where they pose a real risk to patient and staff health and safety; I don’t want anyone else to suffer the way I have.
“I can only continue my work in this area if I do not have to raise the large sums of money required to take my claim to the full tribunal. Asking family and complete strangers to support a further, more costly tribunal claim is something that I am not comfortable with. I also feel that whether I won or lost the tribunal the result would not have any great impact on whistleblower protection as very few whistleblowers actually get as far as tribunal with a detriment claim.
“The Trust has offered me an opportunity to work with them to improve the culture around speaking up in the Trust; this is something we will be discussing further over the coming months.”