NHS in court attempting to stop staff speaking about their beliefs outside of the workplace
Barnabas Fund 03/08/2017
This week Richard Page will challenge an NHS ruling that requires employees not to make any comments outside of the workplace contradicting the NHS’s politically correct view of “equality.”
As a magistrate during an adoption hearing, he expressed the view that it was “generally in the best interests” of a child to have both a mother and father.
A panel investigating his continuing as a trustee told him, “It was not in the interests of the health service for you to serve as a non-executive director in the NHS,” his actions “likely to have had a negative impact on the confidence of staff, patients and public in you as a local NHS leader.”
Between 1719 and 1888 the UK abolished “Test Acts” that prohibited anyone from being teachers and university professors unless they publicly subscribed to certain beliefs. This NHS Trust is seeking to turn the clock back on more than 130 years of religious freedom in the UK.
The Daily Telegraph warned that this week’s hearing could have major implications for how public bodies treat staff with religious beliefs. Mr Page will warn that “the loss of his job because of his religious beliefs signifies a worrying shift away from pluralism towards ideological dictatorship in the health service.”