The Department of Health and Social Care and Dr Rosalind Ranson will return to court again tomorrow, with the fate of next week’s scheduled hearings hanging in the balance.

This morning, Deemster Andrew Corlett heard that the hearings should not go ahead before an appeal, brought by the DHSC, is heard.

The argument, put forward by the DHSC’s newly appointed advocates, led to the Deemster offering to hold the appeal tomorrow.

The appeal will not focus on the result of the tribunal, which found that Dr Ranson had been unfairly dismissed from her role as the island’s medical director after making protected disclosures (whistleblowing).

Instead, the appeal will focus on whether or not the tribunal, chaired by Douglas Stewart, had acted beyond its remit in looking into the disclosure, or non-disclosure, of documents during the tribunal.

These documents form the basis of next week’s hearings.

If the appeal is successful, it is likely that the tribunal hearings, due to begin on Tuesday, will not go ahead as scheduled.

See tomorrow’s Courier for more detail on today’s hearing.

Click here to read more about Dr Ranson’s tribunal.