Dr A Chaggar v University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust — 2022

At an open preliminary hearing on 7 January 2022, Employment Judge Hindmarch determined whether Dr A Chaggar was a disabled person within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010 for the purposes of linked disability discrimination claims in case numbers 1300330/2021 and 1304761/2021. The claimant said he had experienced work-related stress and anxiety from 2009, with episodes in 2013, 2017, 2018/2019 and 2020. The respondent disputed disability and relied on GP records, a GP letter, and an occupational health report.

The tribunal preferred the contemporaneous GP and occupational health material to the claimant's account where they differed. It found that the 2013 episode was a short period of stress with two weeks off work and no basis for concluding that any substantial adverse effect was likely to recur. For 2020, it accepted that the claimant was stressed about PPE and returning to work, but found that the GP notes did not record a substantial adverse effect or mental health problem until later in the year, and that the episode had resolved by the end of 2020 after a short course of Amitriptyline.

The tribunal held that Dr Chaggar was not a disabled person at the relevant time. It accepted the respondent's submission that fear about covid and the use of coping strategies such as mindfulness, exercise and diet did not, on the evidence before it, establish a disability. No substantive liability decision or remedy was made in this preliminary judgment.