An NHS manager has been accused of telling a former colleague ‘karma is a bitch’ after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Shaun Chadwick, a senior executive partner at Spectrum Health in Oadby, Leicestershire, is also said to have fat-shamed another former colleague, leaving her feeling ‘suicidal and reliant on antidepressants’.
The senior executive partner at Spectrum Health in Oadby, Leicestershire has denied the allegations, naming them ‘grossly inaccurate and insulting’.
The first woman, who asked not to be named, said she was ‘really upset’ when Mr Chadwick posted offensive remarks about her on a mutual friend’s Facebook post after her MS diagnosis.
A post from his account allegedly said: ‘Sorry to hear about your poor health — karma is a b***h. I hear you’re as miserable as always. Pathetic woman.’
She said he later sent a direct message saying: ‘Grow up you fat cow and happy cleaning, because that’s all you’re worth. Council scum.’
After she responded to his comments with insults and abusive language of her own, the exchange was reported to the regional Clinical Commissioning Group, the Care Quality Commision and Leicestershire Police.
The woman said: ‘It really upset me to think someone could think that of me, I also want him to know that I would have just ignored this behaviour while working for him.
‘But now I’m stronger and I want him to know he can’t talk to me like that.
‘I felt as though he was always laughing at me in meetings, always picking at things he said I hadn’t done. When he started working at the surgery we got on really well, but somewhere along the line he started to dislike me.
‘He was one of the reasons I left and since then I had blocked him on everything and had no contact. I’m not even friends with him on Facebook, but he saw me comment on a mutual friend’s post. I did not in a million years expect to get what I got from him.’
Mr Chadwick, then a manager for nine practices, also allegedly nicknamed another ex-colleague ‘Chubbs’ and told a co-worker not to ask if she wanted anything from the supermarket.
He is said to have joked about a caricature of her created for the surgery that ‘made her look fatter than she was’.
‘It looks like [she] is about to explode’, he apparently said in a Teams message, adding a laughing emoji.
‘I asked him to change it and not use it, but it was posted on the website and put up in the surgery’, the woman claimed, saying his behaviour made her feel suicidal and reliant on antidepressants.
‘He said to me “don’t worry you don’t have that many chins” and walked off laughing. It still haunts me to this day.’
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It is also claimed Mr Chadwick shared confidential questions with practice staff that inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) planned to ask during a visit – telling them to be ready with the right answers.
It would be a breach of the body’s rules on confidentiality, with an email at the time asking colleagues to treat the documents ‘in the strictest of confidence’.
A Spectrum Health spokesman said: ‘Mr Chadwick denies allegations and legal proceedings via our solicitor and Leicestershire Police for defamation, malicious communication and harassment have commenced.
‘Mr Chadwick takes such allegations extremely seriously and therefore ordered an external facilitator to investigate working culture at Spectrum Health.
‘We can confirm that such allegations are grossly inaccurate and insulting.’
A joint statement from NHS England and East Leicestershire and Rutland CCG said: ‘We cannot comment on ongoing individual cases, but we are aware of concerns which have been raised and we are working to investigate following the appropriate NHS complaint processes.’
A CQC spokesperson said it would not be investigating the allegations because Mr Chadwick is no longer a specialist adviser.
‘We are not aware that he sent an email to a GP practice including details about the CQC inspection framework’, they added.
A spokesman for Leicestershire Police said he was ‘not aware of this matter being reported to the force’.
Mr Chadwick has been contacted for further comment.
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