A doctor has said raising whistleblowing concerns about maternity care at his hospital “cost me very dearly” after he lost his employment tribunal.
Consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Martyn Pitman was dismissed earlier this year from his job at the Royal Hampshire county hospital (RHCH) in Winchester, where he had worked for 20 years.
He told the Southampton tribunal, which concluded earlier this month, that he had been “subjected to brutal retaliatory victimisation” after exercising his rights under the Public Interest Disclosure Act.
A tribunal judgment released on Friday said there had been “unanimous” agreement that the arguments behind the whistleblowing claim “fail and are dismissed”.
The judgment found the “overarching reason” for what has happened to Pitman was down to his “communication style” and “not the message he was trying to convey”.
Pitman said he now faces “the brutal reality of losing the career I have cherished” and he, his legal team and the British Medical Association will decide on “appropriate next steps”.
Pitman told the hearing that up to the spring of 2019, morale was deteriorating in the RHCH midwifery team. He said he was elected by the midwives to act as their “spokesperson”, which led to him raising issues with management.
He said his concerns had been about patient choice, including an emphasis on natural birth over caesarians, and safety due to “dangerously low staffing levels” – which he claimed management dismissed out of fear of “reputational damage”.
After the judgment, Pitman said in a statement: “This decision is incredibly disappointing and another devastating blow in what has been a very long and challenging legal dispute with the Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust.
“I have dedicated my entire career, particularly my two decades as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, to the provision of safe, evidence-based and patient-centred care for those individuals who I have had the privilege and responsibility to look after.
“My decision to whistleblow patient and staff safety concerns at the trust has cost me very dearly, and I am faced with the brutal reality of losing the career I have cherished.”
Pitman’s separate unfair dismissal claim is still being heard.
The trust said it was “grateful” that the tribunal’s decision had been in its favour, but also accepted that Pitman had “raised important and valid concerns, particularly in relation to impacts around staffing levels on our maternity unit”.
In a statement, the trust said: “He was right to do this – and he was not alone in doing so. We listen to concerns raised and take action. Today, our maternity units are fully recruited for midwives.
“Our issue was never about the concerns raised by Mr Pitman, but about concerns raised by others of disruptive behaviour and then a breakdown in working relationships. These factors are damaging in any workplace, but in a healthcare setting, which is by its nature an intense and pressurised environment, their destabilising effect is even more serious.”
