Exposing racial inequality and institutional racism

We wholeheartedly support Dr Vivienne Lyfar-Cissé and other members of the BME network in BSUHT, fighting tirelessly to expose racial inequality and institutional racism in Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

We condemn the Trust senior management who have spent £100s of 1000s to quash the legal actions of Dr Lyfar-Cisséand and others to intimidate them into silence. 

Here is Vivienne's personal statement re her campaign:
"Since 2004 Dr Vivienne Lyfar-Cissé has dedicated considerable energy on working on her own behalf and with and for others to challenging institutional racism in Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and the NHS more generally. Her determined stance (as one of two black women in a senior position) in the furtherance of full racial equality in the Trust systematically made her a target for senior management. This resulted in a number of successful and unsuccessful Employment Tribunal claims for racial discrimination and victimisation over the years.
On 1 April 2017 Ms Marianne Griffiths was appointed Chief Executive of the then Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and by June 2017 she had dismissed Dr Lyfar-Cissé, based on the outcome of a disciplinary against Dr Lyfar-Cissé some 6 months before her appointment. Both the disciplinary and dismissal charges gave rise to Employment Tribunal claims, which are now the subject of a claim before the European Court of Human Rights, because of the Tribunal’s violations of Dr Lyfar-Cissé’s right to a fair trial.
Dr Lyfar-Cissé has by way of her crowdfund appeal, to cover her legal costs and expenses, set out for the first time her position as to matters that are currently in the public domain in the hope that this will encourage people to support her fight for justice".
http://www.justiceforvivienne.org/  

Sussex Defend the NHS statement: 
"In all the years Sussex Defend the NHS has known and worked with Dr Lyfar-Cissé and other members of the BME network in BSUHT they have been fighting tirelessly to expose racial inequality and institutional racism in Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. The BME Network under the leadership of Dr Lyfar-Cisse, has done this with little thought for their own interests. Over a period of several years, successive trust managements have tried to suppress the Network and individual members, intimidating them with threats of disciplinary action, but have been successfully fought off. 
That is until the new Trust management, led by CEO Marianne Griffiths, took over on 1 April 2017. Determined to quash the BME Network and silence dissent - three senior black members of staff, including two black medical consultants, were dismissed within 6 months. Dr Lyfar-Cissé was herself dismissed on 28th June, 2017, on trumped-up charges, and has been fighting through employment tribunals and courts ever since to clear her name, and obtain redress for her unjust treatment at the hands of the CEO and the senior trust management.
We wholeheartedly support her latest brave action in pursuit of her right to a legally valid and unprejudiced trial and justice, taking on the UK government via legal proceedings in the European Court of Human Rights. We will do all in our power to support her and very much hope other campaigns, groups and organisations will do the same".