NHS secretary becomes oldest person ever to win ageism case at 88

Eileen Jolly was dismissed due to ‘frailty’

(AFP/Getty Images)

An 88-year-old NHS secretary who was dismissed from her job over “frailty” claims has become the oldest person to win an age discrimination case.

Eileen Jolly was fired from her role at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading in January 2017. She was 86 years old at the time.

Her age came under scrutiny after she allegedly failed to upload details of cancer patients into a new electronic database, which meant that 14 women had to wait more than a year for non-urgent surgery.

The error prompted Jolly’s colleagues to inform her boss that they were concerned her age was affecting her performance.

Jolly, who had been working at the hospital for 25 years, felt “humiliated” and “degraded” that she was dismissed, and proceeded to sue the Royal Berkshire NHS Trust on the basis of unfair dismissal.

At the time, she was reportedly escorted out of the hospital and prescribed antidepressants.

According to The Daily Telegraph, she had lied to friends and family about why she’d left her job, telling everyone, including her husband, that she’d retired because she was embarrassed to reveal what really happened.

Her husband died two weeks prior to her hearing. It’s not clear whether or not he knew the truth about why Jolly had left her job.

On Wednesday, it was announced that Jolly had won her claim and would be awarded compensation in October.

Judge Andrew Gumbiti-Zimuto, who ruled on the hearing, explained that Jolly’s error might’ve been down to inadequate training and said that she was performing her role "competently" prior to dismissal.

He said: “There is a suspicion of the Claimant being a scapegoat, the Claimant was not offered training where it might be considered appropriate."

Gumbiti-Zimuto added that there was evidence to suggest Jolly had been trained "on the job" on an ad hoc basis.

Meanwhile, Jolly has not read the judgement yet and revealed she will be meeting with her solicitor soon to discuss the next steps.