Helping a BMA member to win a high-profile whistleblowing claim
At the end of 2021, we received instructions from the British Medical Association (BMA) to represent the former medical director of the Isle of Man’s (IoM) Department for Health and Social Care, in a high-profile three-week unfair dismissal and whistleblowing claim.
The BMA member, Dr Rosalind Ranson, had been dismissed and received detrimental treatment after blowing the whistle on the IoM’s response to the COVID pandemic.
In her role, equivalent to Prof. Chris Witty for the IoM, she provided medical advice to the IoM government on how it should respond to the pandemic. That advice, including to close the borders, was not passed on to the government ministers which Dr Ranson said cost lives.
This was a politically sensitive case, involving a number of Cabinet Ministers as witnesses.
Last month, the Employment and Equality Tribunal issued their judgment, and we were successful on all grounds. The Tribunal found that Rosalind Ranson was subjected to ‘a pattern of disgraceful behaviour’ at work and was undermined and misrepresented by senior colleagues when seeking to discharge her duties in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the decision, Gareth Williams, BMA Legal Director, said:
I just wanted to thank you for the tremendous win you achieved for Dr Ranson recently.
I am incredibly grateful for the work you did, picking this case up at short notice, and over Christmas, and turning it around in short order to achieve another high-profile whistle-blower win.
We owe you a huge debt of gratitude for all the support and dedication that you have consistently shown for the BMA and its members.
Read more about the case here.
