A NHS chief today denied helping to stop an investigation into a Hove GP accused of prescribing puberty blockers to children when he made a counter-allegation of transphobia against a whistleblower.
Adam Doyle and NHS Sussex, of which he was then chief executive, are defending a case of constructive dismissal brought to employment tribunal by Dr Sarah Redvers.
Last year, a few months after Dr Redvers finally quit NHS Sussex with her health in tatters, an investigation started by NHS Sussex found Dr Sam Hall and colleagues at his surgery WellBN had caused harm to scores of children by prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without adequate explanation or monitoring.
Today, Mr Doyle was quizzed about the complaint made by Dr Hall in April 2021 that Dr Redvers was victimising him, prompted by the GMC informing him he was under investigation. He had also been investigated by NHS England, both as a result of concerns raised by Dr Redvers.
Dr Hall’s formal written complaint, submitted a few weeks later on 3 July 2021, said the GMC had not suspended him following interventions from NHS England on his behalf.
On July 8, a press release was issued by the Sussex Health and Care Partnership, an umbrella NHS organisation, quoting Mr Doyle on the importance of trans inclusion and being a trans ally, and also quoting trans charity The Clare Project, of which Dr Hall was a trustee.
It was forwarded to Dr Redvers and a handful of other NHS Sussex colleagues by the trust’s head of equality, diversity and inclusion Nicky Cambridge.
The next day Mr Doyle and the trust’s head of people Mark Power had a meeting with Dusty Amroliwala, who was appointed to lead an investigation into Dr Redvers, including her motivations in raising her concerns.
Mr Doyle formally responded to Dr Hall later that day.
Dr Redvers’ barrister Chris Milsom said: “The GMC closed its investigation on 15 July. It’s no coincidence that you have the email on 9 July accepting complaints which were raised in April, and six days later, the GMC closes it’s proceedings is it?
“By the end of June, you knew full well that the claimant would case to be an obstacle to Dr Hall and WellBN.”
Mr Doyle replied: “No.”
Mr Milsom said: “Whether you shared Dr Hall’s beliefs or simply adopted them, what followed was an attempt to undermine her.”
Mr Doyle again replied: “No.”
The hearing was also shown an email from Dr Stephen Pike sent during this time, on 7 May 2021, detailing an audit he had carried out into the prescription of puberty blockers to NHS patients in Sussex.
He found eight under-18s, 12 being treated by the Tavistock, seven who had been prescribed blockers by overseas practice Gender GP (run by two GPs struck off by the GMC) and one – a 16 or 17-year-old – who was being prescribed by Brighton Health and Wellbeing (the former name for WellBN) while waiting to be seen by a gender clinic.
The trust’s chief medical officer Elizabeth Gill replied to Dr Pike, also cc’ing in Dr Redvers, asking “Please can we keep this audit to ourselves for the time being.”
The hearing has heard Mr Amroliwala’s investigation was subsequently found to be significantly flawed after Dr Redvers launched a grievance into the process.
Among other failings, Dr Redvers was only given a redacted copy of Dr Hall’s complaint against her after several requests were turned down and she resorted to submitting a subject access request.
Mr Amroliwala’s interviews of Dr Redvers and other colleagues in the safeguarding team were found to be combative, with subjects denied material before the meeting and instead expected to read it there and then and respond.
When Dr Redvers disputed Mr Amroliwala’s account of her interview, she had to repeatedly request the recording of the interview to prove he had made mistakes.
It also emerged that Mr Amroliwala was a close personal business associate of Mr Power.
Today, Mr Doyle agreed that when he read Mr Amroliwala’s report, it was “not what he would expect to read.”
Mr Milsom said: “There’s no evidence of you redacting the report before sending it on?”
Mr Doyle said: “No.”
Reference was also made to a meeting of NHS Sussex’s Trans Health Improvement Board in August 2023, at which a community participant referred to Dr Redvers as being a transphobe.
Dr Redvers was told of this informally by a member of the board on the same day her first grievance was allowed, prompting her to make a second one.
However, this was not upheld, and an appeal also failed. Shortly after learning the outcome of this, Dr Redvers resigned.
During the final part of today’s session, Mr Milsom asked Mr Doyle about differences in how the complaints against Dr Hall and Dr Redvers were dealt with.
Mr Doyle said he was only became aware of concerns about Dr Hall when Dr Hall emailed him with his complaint about Dr Redvers, which included a dossier of emails about the various investigations.
He said: “At the time I gone through all the emails. Where there were clinical things to be looked at, I had asked Elizabeth Gill to take that forward.
“At this point we still had a complaint about the executive team.
“I accept the process was flawed, but it was still the right thing to do.”
The tribunal is scheduled to last until the end of next week.
The NHS across the UK needs to look at this case and understand that their stance on the trans issue is not just, not informed and not legal. All trusts should be adjusting their policies regarding sex/gender immediately.
Not only to save tax payers hard earned money, their own credibility, but also women and girls rights….they are not disposable. How dare you ever think they were.