THE man in charge of the biggest NHS shake-up in a generation did not know what his own colleague was doing before she was unfairly dismissed, a tribunal has revealed.

Carmel Connell was forced to resign from her job as associate director in charge of quality improvement at Mid Essex Hospital NHS Trust, which is now combined with trusts in Southend and Basildon.

Tom Abell, the chief transformation officer who is leading the £118million plan to change how hospitals work, was criticised for his role in proceedings.

While carrying out the previous restructure Mr Abell did not know Ms Connell had responsibility for Care Quality Commission matters, despite this being 50 per cent of her role.

She eventually resigned in September 2017 after her position was deleted following a consultation period in 2017, despite not being matched to any new role and then later subsequently offered a role with a “significantly lower salary” and with a job role very different to her previous one.

“The claimant’s former role was therefore a higher strategic role than the programme director role,” Judge Brown determined in a written decision.

The trust was found to have made several mistakes amounting to a breach of the duty of trust and confidence.

It failed to consider her full role and duties when developing the new structure, failed to comply with its change policy by not giving her an opportunity to give an “expression of interest”.

The trust failed to provide adequate information in respect of posts which were said to constitute suitable offers of alternative employment and failed to carry out an adequate matching exercise. It misled her regarding the matching exercise which had been carried out and Mr Abell failed to respond to a number of the claimant’s letters requesting information on the matching exercise.

Mr Abell said: “We have reflected on the findings of the tribunal and are working to tighten up processes so our staff are always treated fairly and appropriately.” The hospital restructure involves sharing services between Basildon, Southend and Broomfield hospital and closing Orsett Hospital and replacing it with medical centres. It is on hold after Southend and Thurrock councils objected.