Dr A Gumma v North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust and 1 other — 2021

Dr A Gumma brought claims against North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust and Ramsay Healthcare UK for ordinary unfair dismissal, protected disclosure detriment and automatic unfair dismissal, direct sex discrimination and victimisation. The tribunal first resolved limitation. It held that most Equality Act allegations were out of time and declined to extend time under section 123 EqA 2010. For the ERA claims against the Trust, allegations before 3 October 2018 in the first claim and before 30 March 2019 in the second claim were out of time; the tribunal also rejected continuing-act arguments and found it was not reasonably practicable to present the whistleblowing claims in time.

Against the Trust, the tribunal found the disciplinary process arose from Dr Gumma's unauthorised access to patient records and her refusal to explain how she obtained the data. It accepted that the Trust had a genuine and reasonable belief, following investigation, that this amounted to misconduct and that the charge of gross misconduct was justified. The disciplinary panel concluded the conduct amounted to gross misconduct and dismissed her summarily on 29 March 2019; the appeal chaired by Mr Wilde on 1 October 2019 was found to have been fair and thorough.

The tribunal rejected the protected disclosure and sex discrimination/victimisation claims against the Trust. It held that the reason for dismissal was the access to confidential patient data, not the disclosure of that data, so the automatic unfair dismissal claim failed. It also found no less favourable treatment because of sex and no detriment or victimisation arising from the claimant's complaints or from Dr Rege's referral to the GMC.

As to Ramsay Healthcare UK, the tribunal found that practising privileges were restricted on 5 September 2017 after a cluster of serious incidents, and later maintained pending external review. It accepted the concerns related to patient safety, clinical practice, confidentiality and data access, and that the termination of practising privileges on 18 June 2018 followed unresolved concerns and the claimant's failure to answer straightforward questions. The claimant later gave the RCOG review team a list of patient complications compiled from Trust information, and the tribunal found the way it had been obtained and disclosed without authorisation reinforced confidentiality concerns. The tribunal held the Ramsay decisions were not because of sex, protected acts or protected disclosures, and dismissed the discrimination, victimisation and whistleblowing claims. No compensation was awarded.