A judge has begun deliberations in an employment tribunal involving the Queen’s former surgeon.
Professor Zygmunt Krukowski claims he was unfairly dismissed by the north-east health board.
Yesterday, his legal team and NHS Grampian made their final submissions to the tribunal.
Judge Alexander Meiklejohn warned making a decision would take some time due to the sheer volume of information put forward for consideration.
“It might take a little longer than usual for a written judgement,” he said.
Prof Krukowski accused NHS Grampian of constructive dismissal, after he had flagged concerns about senior management.
The 70-year-old’s whistleblowing led to turmoil at the health board, with increased government scrutiny, two critical reports of Aberdeen’s hospitals and the eventual departure of the high-profile figures.
A probe by the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSE) uncovered a breakdown in working relationships within Aberdeen Royal Infirmary’s general surgical team.
The royal physician was suspended from his role at the hospital in 2015 over bullying allegations, along with seven other senior doctors.
They were cleared of any wrongdoing by the General Medical Council in July 2016 but Mr Krukowski resigned from his post shortly afterwards.
His legal representative Russell Bradley argued the health board’s own investigations into complaints raised against Prof Krukowski by colleagues was “incompetent and incomplete”.
Mr Bradley suggested NHS Grampian’s own policy dictated mediation should have been considered, but said there was “no evidence” that anything other than suspension ever was.
Under cross-examination, Mr Krukowski had earlier told the tribunal he had become “a marked man” as a result of his whistle-blowing and that his employer used all the “tools at their disposal” to be rid of him.
But NHS Grampian’s counsel Ian Truscott QC denied the surgeon was forced out of his job because of the concerns he raised.
He said the number of people suspended after the RCSE showed it was an “impossible case that he was treated unfairly because of the disclosure.”
Instead he described an “intimidating figure” who bullied surgical colleagues who worked differently to him.
“You had a figure who was once of extremely high importance, perhaps now fading,” he said.
“Shouty surgeons may well have been how it was but that is not the way it is now.”
The judge’s ruling will be issued in writing in the coming weeks.
