Disabled NHS employee wins £233,000 from trust

A disabled NHS employee has received more than £233,000 in compensation after it was found she was unfairly dismissed and discriminated against by a trust.

Kelly Ruddock resigned from her role as a medical secretary at West Suffolk Hospital's mental health complex Wedgwood House, in Bury St Edmunds, in September 2021.

She left after being told she was required to take on a "ward based" role, which she could not fulfil because of her "substantial disabilities".

An employment tribunal ruled the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust had failed to make reasonable adjustments for Mrs Ruddock and she had been a "victim of unlawful discrimination and unfairly dismissed".

The trust apologised to Mrs Ruddock for "what she experienced and the distress that was caused".

Mrs Ruddock started working as a medical secretary in July 2017, having previously been employed by the trust as an agency worker in 2012.

She has a number of health conditions including fibromyalgia and the lasting effects of a spinal injury sustained in a crash.

When she carried out certain movements she would experience pain and on some occasions her back would spasm, leaving her immobile for up to 30 minutes.

Following an administration review, she was told she would become a senior ward administrator – a role which would be "predominantly ward based".

She feared she would "suffer a significant exacerbation of her symptoms" if she worked on a ward, concerns which an occupational health report said were valid.

As part of the trust's redeployment policy – which applies to staff who, for example, have ill health – Mrs Ruddock was interviewed for a different role.

Despite meeting the criteria for the job it was instead given to another candidate who was not requiring redeployment.

The employment tribunal ruled the trust had "failed" to follow its redeployment policy and that Mrs Ruddock should have been appointed to that role.

The trust said that in a ward-based role Mrs Ruddock's day-to-day job would actually have remained "unchanged".

The tribunal panel ruled that was never communicated to Mrs Ruddock and, if it had been, "she would have remained in post" and not resigned.

"A later advertisement for the post described it as 'ward based', so we do not accept it was the intention for the post to remain as it was," the panel said.

During the tribunal, the trust also accepted that working in a ward-based environment would have put Mrs Ruddock at a "substantial disadvantage in comparison with those who are not disabled".

Jeremy Over, the chief people officer at the trust, said he respected the decision and outcome of the tribunal and that "changes to benefit our staff and enhance our culture" had been made.

"We launched a new reasonable adjustments toolkit to better support staff with a disability and prevent similar situations occurring in the future," he said.

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