The chairman of the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has resigned after a tribunal found that he and others had ‘conspired’ to oust the trust’s chief executive, Dr Susan Gilby.

Ian Haythornthwaite was described in a tribunal last week, which found that Dr Gilby had been unfairly dismissed, as an “inaccurate historian” who did not give “credible evidence”.

In a statement after the ruling on Friday (14 February), Haythornthwaite said he had decided to resign with immediate effect.

The tribunal heard that Haythornthwaite and three other senior hospital figures had worked together on ‘Project Countess’, which aimed to remove Dr Gilby from her post.

He exchanged private emails and WhatsApp messages with non-executive director Ken Gill and HR director Nicola Price. A further non-executive director, Ros Fallon, was also in the group. Gill, Price and Fallon have all since left.

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The tribunal heard that Haythornthwaite failed to disclose emails and other correspondence between the group, which Judge Dawn Shotter said “points to a deliberate intention to hide documents” that would have shown his true role in her departure.

Judge Shotter also said it was “more likely than not” that Haythornthwaite had been involved in the deletion of other relevant documents that would have supported her case.

The Countess of Chester Hospital has been under intense scrutiny, including calls for a corporate manslaughter investigation, as it was where neonatal nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of the murder of seven babies in 2015 and 2016.

Dr Gilby was appointed chief executive of the trust in September 2018, two months after Letby was arrested.

Despite glowing appraisals, the tribunal heard that after Haythornthwaite was appointed chair in 2021, she became concerned with his behaviour.

She told the tribunal that in July 2022, she had been subject to a “fierce verbal attack” where he banged his hand on the table and “focused repeatedly on what he said was wrong with me”.

Dr Gilby raised her concerns, which the tribunal saw to be protected disclosures, and was then subject to detrimental treatment by the Project Countess group.

She was offered a compromise agreement to leave the trust, but to get the pay off she was told she would have to drop her allegations about Haythornthwaite. After this, she was suspended pending an investigation into misconduct, but the tribunal found no evidence of this.

Dr Gilby resigned in December 2022, with her resignation confirming ‘Notice of Unfair Constructive Dismissal’. Despite repeated attempts to access her HR files to build a case, including a Subject Access Request, she was not provided with them.

The tribunal upheld her claim of unfair constructive dismissal and whistleblowing detriment on the basis that the treatment that forced her to resign was due to her protected disclosures.

A remedy hearing will take place in May to decide her compensation.

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