The Employment Appeal Tribunal has given judgment in this appeal by the Claimant, who was a consultant surgeon employed by the Trust until her dismissal.
The appeal concerned the meaning of the term “professional conduct” and how it was applied by the Employment Tribunal in determining whether disciplinary allegations against the Claimant included allegations of “professional misconduct” (or lack of capability) as used in the Department of Health’s document, Maintaining High Professional Standards in the Modern NHS (“MHPS”).
Mrs Justice Simler (President) held that it was for the Employment Tribunal to decide as a matter of law, whether the misconduct allegations against the Claimant were properly to be characterised as ‘professional misconduct’ obliging the Trust to have an independent, medically qualified person on the disciplinary panel in accordance with MHPS. If the Tribunal erred in law in reaching its decision on that issue, the Employment Appeal Tribunal could interfere.
In categorising a range of allegations that, taken together, led the Trust to conclude that the Claimant had become wholly unmanageable, the Tribunal was as a matter of fact and law entitled and right to find that each allegation had nothing to do with the exercise of the Claimant’s “clinical or professional conduct or competence”.
Simon Cheetham QC was instructed on behalf of the Trust by Victoria Bashir of Capsticks LLP.
To see the full judgement please click here.
Employment, Employment Appeal Tribunal, Capsticks LLP
