United Kingdom News (including UK wide, England, NI and Wales - see separate thread for news from Scotland)

Disability charity is ordered to pay £150,000 to disabled employee with long Covid​


AI Summary:
A disability charity, Shared Lives South West, has been ordered to pay £152,745 to William Drysdale-Wood after a tribunal found he was unfairly dismissed and discriminated against due to his disabilities.
Drysdale-Wood worked as a shared lives coordinator from September 2015 until his dismissal in September 2023.
He had Crohn’s disease and was later diagnosed with long Covid and chronic fatigue syndrome.
After periods of sickness absence and a phased return to work, he attended two capability meetings in September 2023.
He was dismissed the day after the second meeting on the grounds of ill health.
The tribunal ruled that the capability process was “remarkably brief” and did not allow him to demonstrate improvement.
The judge found the charity could have used less discriminatory measures, such as tolerating limited absences, instead of dismissal.
The dismissal contributed to a deterioration in his health.
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I don't want to detract at the BACME letter topic, so asking here.

Jonathan Edwards said:
Absolutely, and advocacy groups calling for special mutidisciplinary ME/CFS services - just like what we have now "in the community" (which inevitably means cheap and useless). I think there may be some progress in getting these groups to see the problem. Maybe we shall see on Monday.
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Does anyone know if LC charities are aware of the problem? All I've seen in that space is complaining about the closure of LC clinics (or merging with ME/CFS services) while calling for multidisciplinary clinics providing holistic care. Given the aforementioned merging of the services, it's even more important that they are aware of the pitfalls.
 
Felis Catus said:
Does anyone know if LC charities are aware of the problem? All I've seen in that space is complaining about the closure of LC clinics (or merging with ME/CFS services) while calling for multidisciplinary clinics providing holistic care. Given the aforementioned merging of the services, it's even more important that they are aware of the pitfalls.
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This is a big problem I think. People with Long Covid are mostly still learning the ropes about service options and, yes, are just calling for multidisciplinary 'holistic' care. The clearer perspective comes from ME/CFS long haulers who have seen what happens over decades.
 
I suspect when people call for multidisciplinary clinics they are imagining seeing a range of doctors from different specialisms to investigate and treat their symptoms in different parts of the body.

They wait months or years, only to find it's an online group short course run by one of a random selection of a physio, OT or psych therapist all offering the same BACME style advice about sleep hygiene, pacing up and with a bit of breathing exercises thrown in.
 
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