Concerns over the management of the region's NHS have been highlighted at an extraordinary employment tribunal involving some of its most senior bosses which saw one described as "finding the truth an alien concept". The 12-day hearing was held to investigate claims by a manager, Clive Rennie, that he had been constructively dismissed from his role during a major NHS restructuring process. What emerged was a scathing insight into the culture of the Norfolk and Waveney clinical commissioning group (CCG) - the powerful body previously responsible for the provision of all local health services - with damning criticism of some of those in charge.
Judge Robin Postle, who oversaw the tribunal, described two of them as being "disingenuous and unconvincing" in a coruscating attack on the way the internal dispute had been handled. In his tirade, Judge Postle took particular aim at John Webster, the organisation's £135k director of strategy and transformation, and Steve Stavrinou, head of HR and business partners at a specialist NHS HR organisation involved in the reorganisation. He said Mr Webster's evidence to the tribunal was "very much like the tide coming in and out when he realised he was caught out" and described Mr Stavrinou as "a man who finds the truth an alien concept".
The judge, who ruled in favour of Mr Rennie, was so struck by the way the NHS had handled the dispute and the evidence of the managers that he has called for an investigation and possible disciplinary action.
