Trust spent £680k in failed attempt to fight whistleblower

A trust spent £460,000 on legal fees trying to fight a patient safety whistleblowing case that it lost, it can be revealed.

An employment tribunal judge rejected the idea that a consultant nephrologist had done anything to bring about her dismissal from Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust.

Jasna Macanovic was subjected to what the tribunal earlier this year called “a campaign of harassment”, after she warned colleagues that a procedure they were using was harming patients.

After relationships broke down in the Wessex Kidney Unit, she was referred to a disciplinary panel at which two board members – the former nursing director and the current medical director – offered her a good reference if she would resign. She refused and was dismissed in March 2018. The judge noted the offer was clear evidence that the disciplinary process was a foregone conclusion.

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Source: HSJ, 8 March 2023