Update on £700K to Crush a Junior Doctor – Don’t Let Them Get Away With It
Dear Supporter,
Cover up complete!
The Court of Appeal have confirmed that the settlement agreement that shut down my whistleblowing case in 2018 can never be challenged. This is despite an earlier signed and sealed Court Order allowing us to it challenge the settlement. This was astonishingly rescinded and then later described as a clerical error (more detail).
The substance of our application that challenged the clerical error and the Court’s reasons for rejecting our appeal has been simply ignored by the Court. You can judge for yourself by reading our application and comparing it with the Court’s response to it.
This means that the circumstances at which my training number and path to consultant was deleted will never be heard by any court. More worryingly, the NHS are relying on a clause in my settlement agreement to prevent the Court scrutinising HOW junior doctors were argued out of whistleblowing protection in 2015. This scandalous process was described by 2 MPs in the House of Commons on 3 July 2019 (Video).
Justin Madders;
“Health Education England effectively sought to remove around 54,000 doctors from whistleblowing protection by claiming that it was not their employer. Four years and hundreds of thousands of pounds later, it eventually backed down and accepted that it should be considered an employer after all.”
Sir Norman Lamb;
“ls the hon. Gentleman aware that the contract between Health Education England and the trusts, which demonstrates the degree of control that Health Education England has over the employment of junior doctors, was not disclosed for some three years in that litigation? lt was drafted by the very law firm that was making loads of money out of defending the case against Chris Day. I have raised this with Health Education England, but it will not give me a proper response because it says that the case is at an end. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that this is totally unacceptable and that it smocks of unethical behaviour for that law firm to make money out of not disclosing a contract that it itself drafted?”
There is some good news. A South London Judge has directed that Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust and Health Education England must attend a 10 day hearing in March 2021 to defend the allegations that they made false statements to an MP and the press about my case after the settlement. The content of this hearing is set out in this letter.
It is bad for everyone that the reality of how junior doctors were argued out of whistleblowing protection has been hidden from the courts. It is bad for me that I will never get the circumstances at which my training number was deleted scrutinised.
Thanks again for your support and I am sorry the news could not be better. I still believe it is important to push on with what we have been allowed to challenge (however shambolic).
Best wishes,
Dr Chris Day
Pete's Library 