A community nurse has been awarded more than £200,000 from his former NHS trust over a failure to support him after he suffered brain haemorrhage.
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust was ordered to pay compensation to the nurse, named in tribunal documents as Mr A McGuiness, following the conclusion of an employment tribunal.
“The trust management ruined the last years of the career I loved”
Mr A McGuiness
The nurse of 25 years’ case centred around the lack of support and reasonable adjustments made by his employer after he suffered a brain haemorrhage in December 2016, which left him disabled.
Mr McGuiness successfully claimed that the failure to make reasonable adjustments had caused a recurrence and exacerbation of depression and anxiety.
After his haemorrhage, Mr McGuiness took 17 months off work due to the illness.
He returned in May 2018, but went back off sick again in October 2019 due to difficulties with memory loss.
The nurse then returned to work for a second time in February 2020 and Mr McGuiness, alongside a representative of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) – which also represented him at the tribunal – demanded a series of reasonable adjustments be made due to his ongoing health complications.
The trust, however, took until August 2020 to begin implementing some of the adjustments, with further adjustments not made until December 2020.
Mr McGuiness, at this point, said the “onus had been put” on him to chase the assistive equipment he needed.
He said that he was left alone with more patients than he was able to care for on multiple occasions, and that every time he asked for help he was told there “was none”.
This, the nurse said, left him feeling alone and unsupported, and that he was being left in “dangerous situations”.
“It took months for the agreed adjustments, such as laptop memory aids and a recorder you speak into which then prints what you say, to arrive,” said Mr McGuiness, who is now due to take early retirement.
“I believe the onus had been put on me to chase provision of the equipment.
“When it was provided, I didn’t receive training on how to use the equipment, which would support me in my role, and which would ultimately ensure safe and effective care for patients.”
In April 2021, the nurse suffered a mental health crisis because the trust failed to remove him from case load holder and coordinator duties, the RCN said.
The tribunal, in September 2023, concluded that the trust had failed to provide Mr McGuiness with the reasonable adjustments that he was legally entitled to.
In a remedy judgement this week, the tribunal told the trust to pay Mr McGuiness £202,452 due to the impact on his mental health, financial loss, care costs, injury to feelings, pension costs and other losses.
“During my recovery, one of my main priorities was to get back to work. I enjoyed my job, and I expected my employer to welcome me back, despite me needing some adjustments,” Mr McGuiness said.
He added: “The trust management ruined the last years of the career I loved due to their failure in implementing several of their own policies.”
The nurse said he hoped the outcome of the tribunal would give others who had suffered similar issues “the awareness and confidence” to challenge employers.
Ferguson Doyle, RCN North West senior legal Officer, supported the nurse at the tribunal.
He said: “While this was a complex case for many reasons, I could see that the member had been put into a position where not only had he been forced into deciding to retire, but he was also continuing to suffer with his health because of his treatment at work.”
A spokesperson for Mersey Care added: “We are aware of the employment tribunal findings which concluded the trust had failed to make workplace reasonable adjustments and would like to offer Mr McGuiness a further apology.
“The trust is committed to learning and has since developed a reasonable adjustments training package, delivered training to managers, reviewed our policies and processes and are currently developing a role to support processes for access to work applications and implementation.”
