The former chief medical officer of the Isle of Man has been awarded a £3.2m settlement over her unfair dismissal for whistle-blowing, a tribunal finding that she was unfairly dismissed after speaking out on the island’s approach to Covid-19.
The island’s Chief Minister offered his “deepest apologies” to Dr Rosalind Ranson on Tuesday after it was found that she had been forced out of her job and subjected to “humiliation, bullying, harassment and vilification” for whistle-blowing.
The Guardian reports that after being awarded £3 198 754 plus 70% of her legal costs, Ranson said she had lost her “belief in essential human kindness” as a result of her ordeal, and that her career and reputation were “destroyed”.
It is the single largest win for a whistle-blowing case for the British Medical Association, which appointed lawyers to fight Ranson’s case.
The damages awarded were so high because the tribunal found that in defending themselves, some officials from the island’s Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) gave such false accounts that they amounted to “a travesty of the truth”.
The DHSC’s former chief executive, Kathryn Magson, was singled out for “inexcusable” behaviour in misleading the tribunal. The DHSC was criticised for fighting the case on liability on a false basis, “to the substantial detriment of Dr Ranson and at the expense of taxpayers on the Isle of Man”.
Magson set out to “silence” Ranson by spreading false rumours she was “burnt out” to stop her appearing at a televised press conference, and also falsely accused Ranson of being “hungry for power”, the panel concluded.
Ranson, a former GP from England, raised concerns about the Isle of Man’s approach to Covid in the early days of pandemic, shortly after being appointed as chief medical officer.
She argued for an early lockdown, ahead of the UK and before a single case reached the island, to avoid a situation “where we are choosing who should be ventilated” in the island’s only hospital with intensive care beds, the Manx employment and equality tribunal heard.
She was dismissed in January 2022 after raising serious concerns, including questioning whether Magson – who was not medically qualified and was living in England for most of the pandemic – was passing on her advice to Ministers.
Judgment 21-20 Dr Rosalind Ranson V Department of Health and Social Care
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