Sacked hospital surgeon loses employment tribunal

A surgeon from Bath has lost an employment tribunal after claiming he was unfairly dismissed for whistleblowing about patient safety concerns.

The tribunal panel found Seryth Colbert, a consultant in oral and maxillofacial surgery, was sacked from the Royal United Hospital in Bath due to his behaviour, not the content of his concerns.

The surgeon argued he had been subjected to detriment for exercising his rights under the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA).

The Bristol Employment Tribunal panel dismissed his claim and concluded his behaviour with some colleagues was unacceptable, with judgement issued on 30 May. Mr Colbert is planning to appeal against the decision.

The surgeon claimed his dismissal in October 2023 was due to retaliatory victimisation, leading to the tribunal.

This came after he raised concerns, which included allegations that cancer patients were not being treated and that a patient had been blinded during surgery.

In October 2023, a disciplinary panel upheld 11 out of 14 allegations against Mr Colbert, leading to his dismissal.

These included: bullying and aggressive behaviour, unwanted physical contact, undermining management, inappropriate use of trust processes and rude and dismissive communication.

The employment tribunal panel found: "Some of this conduct is more serious than others. An isolated rude email is clearly insufficient to warrant summary dismissal.

"Low level unwanted physical contact might also be regarded as somewhat innocuous."

The panel added: "Similarly, the fact that the claimant raised issues brought to him by junior doctors with someone other than the clinical lead in the department, may seem a long way from repudiatory conduct.

"However, once the context, intention and impact are considered, the conduct, taken collectively, does, we conclude, amount to repudiatory breach.

"The claimant acted in a way which was coercive to junior colleagues, undermined a senior colleague and was intimidating.

"Although, there is no doubt at all, that his treatment of other colleagues was exemplary, beneficial and inspiring, that does not detract from our findings."

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