Dr. Kathryn Grady, a consultant anaesthetist with a 40-year career in the NHS, has been found to have suffered discrimination after Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust removed her title as clinical director of pain while she was on sick leave due to a knee injury and related health issues. An employment tribunal in Manchester ruled that the trust’s actions amounted to unfavourable treatment linked to disability and awarded her compensation.

Grady, who joined the NHS in 1983, specialised in pain medicine from 1995 and initially served as clinical director of pain at the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust from 1996 until 2004. She returned to this leadership role a decade later and retained the position after the merger of trust services in 2017, continuing as clinical director until 2023.

The tribunal heard that the trust’s pain service was largely suspended early in the COVID-19 pandemic, with staff, including Grady, redeployed elsewhere. When services resumed in 2021-22, Grady received positive evaluations for leading a complex multidisciplinary team. However, by late 2022, trust managers held “crisis meetings” over perceived deficits in tailored training for pain consultants.

In early 2023, Grady experienced a serious knee injury related to a prior illness and was advised to avoid theatre work. During her subsequent absence, the trust’s head of anaesthesia reviewed pain services, leading to the removal of her clinical director title without prior warning. Simultaneously, the trust informed Grady that she had been overpaid nearly £190,000, causing significant anxiety.

At the time, Grady was reportedly the only member of the pain service leadership over 60. The tribunal judge, Rhodri McDonald, noted the removal of her title was sudden and unexpected, damaging the employment relationship. The judge stated that Grady’s appointment had been open-ended, and she had not been made aware of any serious performance concerns. He described the stripping of her title as a humiliating loss of status, exacerbated because colleagues were informed before she was.

The Manchester trust has not publicly commented on the ruling. The tribunal upheld Grady’s claims of unfair dismissal and disability discrimination, highlighting concerns over the handling of her case and the treatment of an experienced clinician during a vulnerable period.