JustBeingCP

It has taken me years to pluck up the courage and share my experiences of working within the medical sector as someone who lives with a disability.

At the age of 18 I become a one of two ward clerks at St Michael’s Hospice in Hereford and I was nervous but very excited to embark on the next chapter of life, employment.

It was always an ambition of mine to seek and gain some form of employment however I was very aware that it would be a massive challenge to achieve this dream because of my various disabilities.

In October 2015 I started my employment journey with SMH (St Michael’s Hospice) however very quickly into this journey managers and fellow colleagues Identified a number of performance issues relating to myself.

I will never forget the day when I was taken into the relatives Kitchen without knowing why my manager and member of the organisations Human Resources (HR) team had called a meeting with me.

Once we were all settled in the kitchen I was told that concerns had been raised by colleagues about my ability to undertake my duties as a ward clerk.

A plan was then put in place to see if my performance could improve over a number of weeks but unfortunately It didn’t for a number of different reasons and that was why a second performance meeting was called with my manager, a member of HR and the person who I job shared with.

We spoke about further issues that had again been be raised by colleagues since the previous meeting regarding performance related concerns.

A number of further support measures were put in place to see if things could improve relating to my ability to undertake my role, unfortunately these didn’t help my performance Improve and on Friday the 4th of February 2016 I was informed that the hospice were terminating my employment.

I then started my search for another employment opportunity and that came in the form of a team and data clerk position with the district nursing service at Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT).

I started my role as a team and data clerk at WVT (Wye Valley NHS Trust) in January 2017 after a 6 month wait post interview so that they could assess and put any reasonable adjustments into place.

A few weeks into my employment with WVT I recognised that a patten was forming and went to see my managers about my performance.

A week or so after I raised these concerns the first of three case conferences were held with the trust’s HR team and my managers to see what support could be put in place to support me.

A support plan was put in place at that conference however a short time later it was deemed that the support offered had not been effect so a second case conference was called with managers and the HR team.

It was decided at the second case conference that I should be recommended for redeployment within the trust and that led to me being placed on the redeployment register following a meeting with the trust’s health and safety adviser and an assessment by consultant physician in occupational health.

She determined that I could be redeployed to a non clinical facing role within Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT) and I went onto secure a total of three interviews however I wasn’t offered any of the positions due to the clinical risk associated the role.

A final case hearing was held on the 22nd of August 2017 where it was decided following the presentation of my case that my employment with Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT) should be terminated with a immediate effect.

It was noted by the panel who conducted the hearing that I have worked so hard throughout my life to overcome my health concerns and that I be should be proud of my achievements.

It was also noted by the panel that it was unfortunate that no suitable alternative roles had been identified in accordance with the trust’s redeployment procedures, it was therefore with regret that the management team had to make this referral to final case/dismissal review hearing.

I was failed by both organisations mentioned in this blog because they didn’t take the time to understand my support needs at any stage of the interview process.

I believe that if they had done this I may still be employed by one of the two organisations that I’ve spoken about.

I am getting very emotional writing this blog because I feel that I have been massively failed by two organisations that are supposed to put people first in there line of work. It has taken me 6 years to get an official apology from Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT) and I have never received a formal apology from St Michael’s Hospice (SMH) in regards to the way that my employment was handled by them.

I would like to end by taking this opportunity to thank both my readers and followers for taking the time out of your busy schedules to read my latest blog.

Cam