A NURSE was summoned to a disciplinary hearing – hours after her husband criticised a health organisation at a public meeting.

Former district nurse Susan Hallworth says bosses at Kirklees Community Healthcare Services (KCHS) threatened to ban her husband from ‘all NHS sites’ and ‘send the police to her home’ after her husband raised a complaint at the Trust’s annual general meeting (AGM).

Mrs Hallworth had complained to her manager about problems with Toughbook laptops issued to employees by NHS Kirklees, which manages KCHS.

The Trust had spent over £250,000 on the laptops to enable staff to file reports and access important information on the move, thus saving travel costs.

But as the Examiner revealed last week, the Trust lost hundreds of working hours as employees struggled with sporadic connectivity, leaving them without patient records and the entry codes to sheltered accommodation.

The report showed how Mrs Hallworth’s husband Terry had obtained the figures through Freedom of Information requests.

Mrs Hallworth, 58, of New Mill, said she had battled with her Toughbook since she received it in summer 2010, causing her to work long hours and suffer considerable stress.

The nurse, who had worked as a district nurse for 12 years, said she raised the issue with her line manager, but received no response from the Trust.

But after Mr Hallworth broached the issue at the Trust’s annual general meeting, Mrs Hallworth was summoned into a Trust office for a ‘chat’.

Mr Hallworth said: “It started when I raised the question at the Trust AGM. The report appeared in the Examiner and that afternoon my wife was hauled before a meeting.”

Mrs Hallworth said: “When the report went into the paper they were on me within three hours.

“It was too big a coincidence.”

She said she was expecting an informal chat with her line manager.

But when she arrived at Holme Valley Memorial Hospital for her ‘chat’ she found health and safety manager Chris Bedford present.

Mrs Hallworth believes Mr Bedford was ordered into the meeting because of a row between her husband and KCHS director Robert Flack at the Trust’s AGM a few days earlier.

Mr Bedford threatened to ban Mr Hallworth from ‘all NHS sites’ and ‘could send the police to her home’, Mrs Hallworth has said.

Mr Bedford and Mr Flack later apologised to Mrs Hallworth in separate letters after she filed a grievance against the two bosses.

Both claimed they had not intended to make Mrs Hallworth feel ‘threatened’, Mr Flack adding he had ‘learned a lesson from this particular issue’.

Mum-of-three Mrs Hallworth retired early because of stress.

She said: “They just thought it was a wonderful system and didn’t want to listen to us.

“I was upset I had to retire. I thought I would go mad if I didn’t.”

KCHS will become private ‘social enterprise’ Locala next month with Mr Flack as its director.

Mr Flack said the Trust did not comment on individual cases.

But he said: “We base everything on our staff surveys and what our staff say to us. We have a good relationship with our staff. It could be better but it is good.

“As we become a social enterprise, owned by members of the community and staff, community members and staff will have more input into how the organisation is run.

“We have patients saying that they are much happier with the new service they are receiving.”