An employment tribunal has ruled that a doctor at Durham and Darlington NHS Trust was unfairly dismissed and has awarded him more than £85,000.
Dr F Qureshi had consistently worked Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, since he started in his role in 2021, with additional hours arranged automatically via rota coordinators.
He raised a grievance that he was not receiving the same benefits and protections as other employees in May 2023.
When Dr Qureshi returned from a three-month absence of sick leave in January 2024, he was informed by a senior manager at the trust that he would no longer receive regular shifts and would instead need to book sporadic bank shifts via a mobile app. Due to the sudden loss of guaranteed work, he resigned.
Dr Qureshi then took a lower‑paid role at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in King’s Lynn. Due to the distance from home, he stayed in rented accommodation there during the week and travelled home on weekends.
In addition, his grandmother was critically unwell in hospital in Newcastle at the time, and he was “physically exhausted from travelling 10 hours each week, struggling and barely able to cope in the job with the added worry of his grandmother being under palliative care in the North East”.
Dr Qureshi stopped working in King’s Lynn in August 2024, to take up a five-year training programme in radiology working for various NHS Trusts in September of the same year.
The trust argued during the tribunal that Dr Qureshi had failed to mitigate his losses, pointing to his later acceptance of a lower-paid training role in radiology. The tribunal rejected this, stating he had taken “reasonable and proactive steps to find alternative employment”.
Employment Judge Moss said: “He cannot be criticised for trying to secure a long-term career in a specialist field as opposed to remaining in general medicine following his dismissal. I found the claimant to be an entirely credible witness and accept he would have remained in his role with the respondent had it not been for the loss of the guarantee of the regular work he had become accustomed to undertaking and receiving remuneration for.”
Dr Qureshi’s compensation was £85, 224.93, including loss of earnings, pension contributions, holiday pay and expenses.
A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust said: “We accept the outcome of the employment tribunal. We will review the findings for any further action we need to take.”
