Case of whistleblower whose career was “destroyed” prompts review of law

The UK government has promised to look again at a gap in whistleblower protection for junior doctors, after a judgment of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in March laid bare a gap in the law.

The appeal tribunal threw out a case brought by the junior doctor Chris Day, who claimed that Health Education England (HEE), the body that oversees the training of doctors in England, treated him unfairly and destroyed his career after he questioned serious understaffing at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, where he was working.

Mr Justice Langstaff ruled that HEE, although it arranges junior doctors’ training placements, pays a substantial part of their salary, and reviews their progress in training, does not employ them …