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A New Zealand radiographer is claiming she was unfairly sacked for blowing the whistle about health and safety issues at a northern England hospital.
Ruth Mcauley has told an employment tribunal in Manchester that exposure to chemicals had made her ill. But she has been accused of seeing various doctors so she could mount a case against the Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospital Trust.
When she was not told what she wanted to hear, she is said to have become angry and aggressive - reporting one doctor to the General Medical Council, the Manchester Evening News reported yesterday.
She is also said to have shown the same behaviour to bosses and a union representative.
"You were not prepared to countenance the fact that your health problems were nothing to do with the trust, were you?" health trust counsel Adrienne Morgan said.
"You were really trying to build up a case against the trust, and the diagnoses you complained about were always the ones that you didn't want to hear - the ones that told you there was nothing much wrong with you."
Ms Morgan said Ms Mcauley had sent an email to one manager accusing her of "scheming, lying, malicious and vindictive" behaviour.
Ms Mcauley, who lives with her partner and their baby son in the suburb of Salford, claimed to have developed a condition known as "darkroom syndrome" through exposure to processing chemicals at the North Manchester Children's Hospital.
She said that after being harassed and victimised, she was sacked for blowing the whistle over "serious health and safety issues".
She said apart from concerns about her own health, she had been worried about the effects on her son Jack, who she was breast-feeding. But the trust had not taken her complaints seriously.
The case is continuing.
- NZPA
