Ex-director ‘removed and silenced over race concerns’

A former finance director has claimed he was ousted and subjected to a campaign to “silence” him by his trust after he asked “inconvenient” questions about race inequalities.

Don Richards, who was chief finance officer at West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust until 2024, told an employment tribunal preliminary hearing in Watford on Wednesday that he had been “pushed” into signing a settlement agreement.

He left the trust shortly after two other executive directors wrote to chief executive Matthew Coats saying they had “no confidence” in him. Days earlier, the integrated care board CEO had sent a separate letter to Mr Coats saying she had concerns over the trust’s financial leadership. 

Mr Richards said in the hearing that there had been a “continuing campaign first to remove me, then to silence me”.

He said this stemmed from a board meeting – which took place in the same month the letters were sent – where he had raised queries about mortality rates among Black women in maternity services, as well as staff with a minority ethnic background being passed over for promotion.

He told the hearing: “I asked inconvenient questions, and the chief executive at the trust didn’t like that. His expedient solution was to remove me.”

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Source: HSJ, 10 April 2026