The Jewish doctor blew the whistle on anti-Semitic harassment – and was fired from Karolinska University Hospital.Now the hospital will pay three million kronor in a settlement with the affected doctor.“It feels like a certain vindication,” says the discriminated doctor.
Karolinska University Hospital writes in the settlement agreement that DN has seen that they regret the anti-Semitic harassment he has experienced during his employment at the hospital.”Karolinska regrets that (the doctor’s editor’s note) reputation, career and health have been negatively affected by the hospital’s handling and by the decision made to reassign (him editor’s note) and to terminate his employment. Karolinska can, in retrospect, state that it is always desirable to find ways to better handle situations based on the interests of both parties.”The case has been investigated both internally and externally. It has received a lot of attention and has also involved the former regional management, then regional health care councilor Irene Svenonius (M). The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles has also courted Karolinska and Region Stockholm with accusations of anti-Semitism.
The doctor claims he was subjected to reprisals after raising the alarm that a senior physician and manager subjected him and several colleagues to anti-Semitic harassment for several years. He now works at a hospital in Denmark and describes what he was subjected to at Karolinska as an “uneven” fight against a huge organization.– We were three Jewish doctors who were harassed and I acted as a whistleblower, which became too inconvenient for them. I was called to a meeting with two days’ notice where I was told that I was fired.The hospital has in turn reported the doctor to the Swedish Health and Social Care Inspectorate, Ivo, as the hospital management assessed that he posed a patient safety risk. Ivo found no basis for the claim in its decision, but sent a separate letter to the hospital, as Karolinska had stated in the report the doctor’s Jewish background, which Ivo assessed as suggestive and irrelevant.Now they are withdrawing the accusation that the doctor was a “danger to patient safety” and admitting that they made a mistake when they included information about the doctor’s ethnicity in an Ivo report.”The hospital takes the incident seriously and regrets that this happened,” one of the points in the settlement agreement states.
For the discrimination and reprisals he was subjected to and for violating the Whistleblower Act, the hospital must now pay three million kronor in damages. The agreement was confirmed by the Stockholm District Court in a settlement last week.In total, the dispute has cost Karolinska seven million kronor after they dismissed the doctor in 2021. Karolinska paid 3.9 million kronor in 2022 after the Labor Court concluded that the dismissal was invalid. Instead of reinstating him, they defied the court’s decision and paid damages.This is far more than previous examples where the hospital has been forced to pay compensation for wrongfully fired doctors. For example, obstetrician Karin Pettersson, who was fired in March last year, received 1.9 million in compensation.– It’s not about money, not at all. I have received compensation for the salary I should have received during the time I was subject to reprisals, says the doctor.
Would you have liked your job back?– Of course! I have been forced away from my family and from Sweden because of how Karolinska has acted to damage my name.Karolinska University Hospital does not want to be interviewed by DN, but refers to a statement on its website where they repeat their regret and write that they are working “actively to develop and improve their work against offensive discrimination and discrimination, and to work for an inclusive and respectful work environment for all employees.”
