Employers cannot increase sanctions against doctors if they appeal, High Court rules

A consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist has won a High Court ruling that an employer’s disciplinary panel has no power to decide that she be sacked after she appealed against a lesser sanction.

The original panel convened by Airedale NHS Foundation Trust decided that Elizabeth McMillan should be given a final written warning after holding that she had given conflicting accounts of a serious untoward incident.

But she withdrew her appeal and took the case to the High Court after learning that the trust planned to ask the panel that had heard the appeal for a decision that she be dismissed instead.

The trust argued that the …