A senior hospital manager told an employment tribunal she was shocked and hurt when a midwife accused her of being a bully.

Sandra Tranter, service manager for the women and children's directorate for the Mid Sussex NHS Trust, denied intimidating midwife Ruth Johnston.

Mrs Johnston, 61, from Lewes, is claiming compensation for constructive dismissal from the trust.

Mrs Johnston has accused her former boss Ms Tranter, who is also co-ordinating supervisor for midwives, of making her life a misery after Mrs Johnston was promoted six years ago to the post of midwifery manager at the Princess Royal Hospital, in Haywards Heath..

She says because of the constant carping and criticism she was forced to resign.

Mrs Tranter told the Brighton hearing: "While I was concerned about the communication difficulties we were having, throughout our working relationship Mrs Johnston never raised with me the fact that she believed I was either bullying or harassing her.

"The first I knew about it came when she commenced the formal grievance process and it was both a deep shock and extremely hurtful."

Mrs Tranter said she encountered difficulties with Mrs Johnston immediately she was promoted and she did criticise her time management and her judgement. Mrs Tranter said: "I found it difficult to trust her judgement because she seemed to favour some staff over others and whenever there was a crisis, she would go on sick leave."

She also praised Mrs Johnston's skills and stressed she had tried to overcome the difficulties between them in order to improve their working relationship.

The tribunal heard how senior managers were aware of a personality clash between the two women. But at a grievance hearing the trust's panel unanimously agreed there was no evidence of harassment by Mrs Tranter.

At an earlier hearing the tribunal heard problems between the two women came to a head in 1995 after midwives at the hospital complained about low morale and claimed patients' lives were at stake because of staff shortages.

The midwives made their protest to the hospital's chief executive without Mrs Johnston knowing anything about it.

Mrs Johnston, who started training as a nurse in 1956, said changes were made to her job which made her work impossible to carry out.

When the trust decided to move her to the post of community midwife she believed it was a demotion and was signed off sick with stress in November 1998. She resigned in February this year.

The hearing continues today.