An NHS nurse turned social media food influencer has won almost £25,000 after she was wrongly accused of starting an intimate relationship with a patient.
Jessica Thorpe was suspended for 29 months after the male mental patient claimed she was pregnant with his child, an employment tribunal heard.
During that time, the nurse started to share pictures of food on Instagram, which led to her amassing some 50,000 followers and becoming an influencer under the name ‘Slice of Jess’.
After finally being invited to return to work, Ms Thorpe resigned in protest over her treatment – accusing the health service of failing to tackle staff ‘gossip’ about the ‘alleged relationship’.
The NHS trust she worked for tried to argue that the ‘real reason’ for her quitting was so that she could continue to purse her career online which was earning her almost £20,000 a year.
Now, an employment judge has concluded that, while the timing of her resignation was an ‘oddity’, if the nurse chose to use her time at home to ‘explore the potential’ for social media activities to generate income – then ‘so be it’.
Ms Thorpe’s claims of constructive dismissal were upheld and she has now been awarded £24,118 in compensation.
The employment tribunal, held in Newcastle, heard Ms Thorpe joined the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust in 2016.
In 2020, the nurse was working on Ward Z – a secure facility for males with mental disorders and illnesses who have come into contact with the criminal justice system
On April 27 of that year, Patient X – whose name has been anonymised for legal reasons – alleged he was having an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with Ms Thorpe and said she was ‘pregnant with his child’.
The nurse was suspended just days later.
Employment Judge Simon Loy said a ‘series of extensions’ to her suspension were added in the period that followed.
The tribunal said in September 2020, during the suspension, Ms Thorpe started a social media profile called ‘Slice of Jess’.
It started as an Instagram account where she uploaded pictures of food and, by the time of the hearing, she had accrued more than 50,000 followers.
She also attracted more than 25,000 subscribers to her YouTube channels – and made 580 videos across three years, or roughly three per week.
Tax returns presented to the tribunal showed that the nurse’s income from Google rose from £4,211.00 in 2021 to £19,222.00 in 2023.
The tribunal heard that during the investigation, Patient X died of a rare reaction to his medication.
A disciplinary hearing eventually took place in July 2021, after 15 months of delays over a variety of issues, including the patient’s death.
Ms Thorpe was told the allegation relating to Patient X was not upheld, due to a lack of ‘conclusive evidence’.
It was said that there was a ‘blurring of boundaries’ due to the patient ‘responding well’ to Ms Thorpe.
Another allegation, relating to accessing the NHS computer system without permission, was upheld and Ms Thorpe said despite receiving the outcome of a warning orally, she was told she would have to wait for written confirmation.
The judge said said: ‘It was common ground that the claimant never received any letter confirming the outcome of the disciplinary hearing 2021 before her resignation.’
It was heard that Ms Thorpe was told that she would not be returning to work until the police investigation into Patient X’s death and the trust’s own serious incident process procedure had been completed.
The judge said this left Ms Thorpe in an ‘entirely unsatisfactory position’.
In October 2022, Ms Thorpe was finally sent an email which outlined her return to work – but she resigned the following month.
In her resignation letter, Ms Thorpe said the trust failed to acknowledge a grievance she had raised or address any ‘gossip’ about the ‘alleged relationship’ from colleagues.
She sued for unfair constructive dismissal, breach of contract and unlawful deduction of wages, all of which were upheld.
The judge concluded there had been an ‘enormous period’ in which Ms Thorpe was suspended from work, but the ‘real issue’ arose from the trust’s decision not to allow her back to work after the disciplinary hearing.
The trust tried to argue that the reason for Ms Thorpe’s resignation was because she wanted to ‘pursue her career as a social media influencer’.
The nurse ‘rejected’ this assertion, branding it ‘fanciful’, and said that the ‘Slice of Jess’ account only started during the suspension as a ‘hobby’.
The tribunal accepted that Ms Thorpe’s desire to pursue a career as a social media influencer and to work elsewhere were both reasons that were ‘influential’ on her decision to resign.
The judge said for this reason, the tribunal had ‘considerable sympathy’ for the trust’s position.
‘It is after all an oddity of this case that after over two years of calling on the respondent to perform its side of the contract, [Ms Thorpe] resigned when in other contexts the breach might be considered as having been remedied,’ the judge said.
‘However, the tribunal must apply the applicable legal principles.
‘There is no restriction on the innocent party to a repudiatory breach from seeking to earn money from other activities that are not expressly or impliedly prohibited by the contract of employment.
‘If the duration of [Ms Thorpe’s] suspension gave her an opportunity to explore the potential for social media activities to generate income then so be it.’
The judge said the trust had not ‘advanced a case’ that her constructive dismissal was ‘fair’, and so her claims were upheld.
At the hearing to determine her compensation, the panel was told that from her dismissal in November 2022 to last month, Ms Thorpe has made £46,362 from her social media activities after expenses and tax.