A top NHS consultant has won a discrimination case after she was stripped of her Clinical Director of Pain title – because of knee pain.
Dr Kathryn Grady had risen through the ranks to become the lead of the pain service at her hospital having worked for the NHS for 40 years.
But an employment tribunal heard she was signed off sick when her knee gave way at work, before later beginning a phased return.
She had also been left with ‘great anxiety’ after being told when she was off that she had been overpaid almost £200,000.
After taking further time off for her knee and her mental health, the Trust wrote to the then 63-year-old giving three months’ notice of ‘discontinuance’ of her Clinical Director of Pain role.
Dr Grady’s solicitor wrote to the trust, confirming that she treated that letter as notice of actual dismissal.
The letter claimed the dismissal was unfair and suggested the ‘real reason for her removal was her disability or matters arising from it’.
Dr Grady took the case to an employment tribunal where it was found that she was constructively dismissed by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, having suffered unfavourable treatment because of her disability. She is now in line for compensation.
An employment tribunal found Dr Kathryn Grady was constructively dismissed by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
Speaking to the Daily Mail today, the medic said it was ‘ironic’ that her tenure as Clinical Director of Pain she brought to a close after she took time off with knee pain.
Dr Grady, now 66, and from Altrincham, Greater Manchester, said: ‘I’d worked in the NHS for 41 years and had been at this Trust for 29 of those years.
‘I’d had some time off for a couple of months when I was 40 with very serious pneumonia which left me at death’s door. But apart from that I’d had virtually no other time off.’
Dr Grady, who was based at Wythenshawe Hospital, said she was 62 when her knee started to cause her a problem. She said she believed she had been holding the pain service together at the trust.
The tribunal heard she joined the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (UHSM) in 1995 as a consultant anaesthetist specialising in pain medicine.
She first held the position of Clinical Director of Pain between 1996 and 2004, and was then appointed again a decade later.
When the Trust merged with another to form Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust in 2017, Dr Grady became clinical director of the merged pain services and remained in post until given notice of her position’s ‘discontinuance’ in September 2023.
The tribunal heard how her right knee had given way that March whilst she was carrying out a long theatre list.
This meant she was unable to put weight on her right knee and an MRI scan was ordered. She was advised to use crutches and do no further theatre lists that week.
Around this time, Dr John Moore, the Clinical Head of Division for Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Perioperative Medicine, was looking to do a ‘deep dive’ into the pain service at the Trust.
At this point Dr Grady had been signed off sick and did not reply to an email from Dr Moore about her ‘job plan’.
In June 2023 an email was sent out on Dr Moore’s behalf that acknowledged challenges within the pain service and agreed that additional leadership and HR support was required.
An occupational health report the same month found Dr Grady fit to work with adjustments, and she began working from home.
She was also told at this time that she had been overpaid £190,328, after she had in error continued to receive a Clinical Excellence Award payment which should have stopped in 2018. This ‘came as a massive shock’ and was a ‘source of great anxiety’ for Dr Grady.
She was signed off sick again due to the pain in her knee and anxiety.
Dr Grady began a phased return to work in July 2023, but was left ‘very upset’ that September when it was agreed she should be removed as clinical director. She then went absent from work due to ill health.
Dr Grady did not return to work before her employment ended on 10 December 2023.
Dr Grady successfully lodged claims of unfair dismissal and unfavourable treatment due to disability, while claims of failure to make reasonable adjustments and age discrimination were dismissed.
Employment Judge Rhodri McDonald, sitting in Manchester, found the Trust’s removal of Dr Grady’s ‘Clinical Director role without any advance warning was (viewed objectively) conduct likely to destroy or seriously damage the employment relationship.’
He added: ‘We have found that her appointment was an open ended one which she would have expected to continue, absent some indication of serious failings on her part.
‘There had been no such indication.’
He said the last ‘substantive contact’ between the two parties in March 2023 saw the Trust confirming it was ‘happy for her to continue in that role.’
The judgment found that it was ‘clear’ that Dr Grady’s colleagues had been told before her that she was ‘going to be removed from her role.’
EJ McDonald added: ‘The removal from role amounted to a loss of status and would be doubly humiliating when others knew before [Dr Grady] did.’
