A whistleblower at a controversial NHS gender clinic has taken the trust to court over racial discrimination after claiming she was subjected to "aggression" from its director when quizzed repeatedly about "what she thought racism was".
Dr Lynne Amidon, 71, had flagged concerns over child safeguarding and "neglect" at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust - which left her signed off work sick with stress.
Dr Amidon had raised concerns 18 times between July 2021 and October 2022 - but in retaliation to her probes, she claimed, the Tavistock then pursued a months-long investigation into her conduct, which she slammed as "clandestine".
Though she had been told the trust's investigation would last just four weeks, the Tavistock then looked into her for 18 months - which she described as a "deliberate move... to ensure the 'process is the punishment".
Dr Lynne Amidon, 71, had flagged concerns over child safeguarding and "neglect" at the Tavistock clinic
PA
The trust's investigation into Dr Amidon was headed up by Hector Bayayi, the former clinical operations director at Tavistock's Gender Identity Development Service (Gids).
And the probe only came to a close at the end of March this year - on the same day Gids was closed for good amid the Cass Review's findings that the clinic's model was "neither safe nor viable".
But after bringing the trust to court at a Central London employment tribunal, Dr Amidon has accused Bayayi of being "hostile and aggressive" while interviewing her as part of his investigation.
She says that during a meeting, Bayayi asked her: "What do you think racism is?" three times, to which she replied that she believed it "to be discrimination based on race or colour" - which she claimed prompted him to become "increasingly aggressive".
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Dr Amidon had whistleblown on a number of social care cases in Camden, her local authority
A week after the meeting, Dr Amidon was signed off sick from work and had even been diagnosed with a disability related to "physical symptoms of stress" which the investigation had caused.
Though the trust did not pursue formal disciplinary proceedings against her, Dr Amidon was made to undertake "re-education" classes in the wake of the probe.
And now, she is claiming damages against the trust for racial discrimination or harassment, alongside the alleged harm she suffered as a whistleblower.
Dr Amidon said she had tabled a race claim because she was "treated less favourably because [she] was white".
But Tavistock denies her claims, insisting it had made "genuine attempts" to deal with safeguarding concerns she flagged.
Bayayi - who will give evidence at the tribunal tomorrow before its conclusion on Friday - accepts he made the comments to Dr Amidon, who is white but denies claims they were racially driven.
Dr Amidon, a consultant psychotherapist, had whistleblown on a number of social care cases in her local authority - Camden, in North London.
The cases included social workers withholding documents from a child's headmaster because they contradicted the worker's views - Dr Amidon said that a team leader at the trust "shrugged off" the notion of reporting this to the worker's manager - and children being "inappropriately" removed from their father's care.
The whistleblower is now seeking crowdfunding to help support her legal costs at the tribunal - and has so far raised over £5,700 from members of the public.