A HEALTH chief tasked with tackling racism was sacked for the racist bullying of one colleague and discrimination against another.

Dr Vivienne Lyfar-Cissé was dismissed from her £100,000 per year role at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust after she victimised colleagues and made negative remarks.

Bosses at the trust say relations with her had broken down. She had become “confrontational and smug” and had an “unduly high opinion of herself”.

At the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton she told one colleague: “You are everything I despise in a white manager.”

An investigation found she had also bullied a woman over her sexuality and breached the woman’s confidentiality by interfering in a grievance complaint.

She was dismissed from her role, and claimed unfair dismissal, but at the Employment Tribunal in Croydon Judge Christopher Baron ruled, “without any doubt”, that the trust was right to sack her.

Dr Lyfar-Cisse started working at the hospital in 1985 as a clinical biochemist, and gained her PhD in 1991.

In October 2014 she was made the associate director of transformation, reporting directly to the chief executive. It was her job to boost race equality and opportunities after concerns over bullying were reported by staff.

Previously, she successfully brought claims against the trust for discrimination against her in 2009, and said that these previous cases meant senior managers had victimised her for standing up for race equality.

She cited a culture of bullying and harassment at the trust, which had been noted in a Care Quality Commission report in April 2016 which put the trust into special measures.

But in May 2016 she faced four allegations from a white colleague named only as Mr W.

Judge Baron noted: “The allegations were of threatening or abusive conduct, racially discriminatory conduct and harassment, and also of victimisation. Two of the four specific allegations were upheld.

“The main factual allegation was that the claimant (Dr Lyfar-Cisse) had said that Mr W was everything she despised in a white manager.”

She also faced 17 allegations in relation to a woman named only as Ms B, from August 2014.

Judge Baron noted the allegations related to “comments and actions relating to the sexual orientation of Ms B, and also to an alleged breach of confidentiality concerning the contents of a grievance raised by Ms B.”

Three of the allegations were upheld.

Finally the trust also stated she failed to comply with an investigation carried out by Henrietta Hill QC.

Former health chief Evelyn Barker described two meetings she had with Dr Lyfar-Cisse.

First when the doctor was to present a document on the trust’s race equality plan in January 2017, then again in March 2017.

Judge Baron noted Mrs Barker had described Dr Lyfar-Cisse’s attitude as “confrontational and smug” at the first meeting, then felt the doctor had been “rude and aggressive” with an “unduly high opinion of herself” after the second meeting.

He gave his judgment from the Employment Tribunal earlier this month and it was published on March 19.

The Mirror Online reports that Dr Lyfar-Cisse intends to appeal the judgment.