Chair’s ‘insidious’ bullying ‘drove out trust CEO’

An acute trust’s former chief executive was driven out by “manipulative and insidious” bullying by its current chair, she has told a tribunal.

Susan Gilby left the Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust at the end of 2022 following a breakdown in relations with chair Ian Haythornthwaite.

She is claiming unfair dismissal against the trust and Mr Haythornthwaite, saying she was “bullied, harassed and undermined” by the chair.

Dr Gilby joined the Countess initially as medical director in August 2018. This was shortly after its neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, later convicted of murder and attempted murder of babies, had first been arrested, and with investigations ongoing. Dr Gilby was made CEO in 2019, and was in post throughout the peak covid periods, before being suspended in December 2022, and resigning shortly after.

According to court documents, issues first arose in late 2021 when a new chair, Mr Haythornthwaite, was appointed.

Mr Haythornthwaite made efforts to “assert control through his subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) bullying techniques”, according to Dr Gilby, a former intensive care consultant and medical director.

“He would often tell me that ‘people’ (who he refused to name) had ‘said things’ about me, but would refuse to elaborate further,” Dr Gilby wrote in her witness statement.

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Source: HSJ, 28 November 2024