NHS Fife tries to silence nurse - Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton - thread #20

[nauticant]

Sandie Peggie, a nurse at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy (VH), has brought claims in the employment tribunal against her employer; Fife Health Board (the Board) and another employee, Dr B Upton. Ms Peggie’s claims are of sexual harassment, harassment related to a protected belief, indirect discrimination and victimisation. Dr Upton claims to be a transwoman, that is observed as male at birth but asserting a female gender identity.

The Employment Tribunal hearing started on Monday 3 February 2025 and was expected to last 2 weeks. However, after 2 weeks it was not complete and it adjourned part-heard. It is planned that it will resume on 16 July and the last day of evidence will be 28 July and then there will be 2 days of submissions from counsel meaning that the hearing will end on 30 July.

The hearing commenced with Sandie Peggie giving evidence. Dr Beth Upton gave evidence from Thursday 6 February to Wednesday 12 February.

Access to view the hearing remotely was obtainable by sending an email request to [email protected] headed Public Access Request (Peggie v Fife Health Board) 4104864/2024 and requesting access.

However, as a result of problems with the livestreaming, apparently caused by a very large number of observers, remote public access to the hearing was suspended on Tuesday 11 February. It was suggested that it might be reinstated at some point but don't count on it.

The hearing is being live tweeted by https://x.com/tribunaltweets and there's additional information here: https://tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/peggie-vs-fife-health-board-and-dr. This also has threadreaderapp archives of live-tweeting of the sessions of the hearing for those who can't follow on Twitter, for example: archive.is/xkSxy.

An alternative to Twitter is to use Nitter: https://nitter.poast.org/tribunaltweets

Thread 1: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5186317-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse
Thread 2: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5267591-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-thread-2
Thread 3: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5268347-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-3
Thread 4: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5268942-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-4
Thread 5: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5269149-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-5
Thread 6: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5269635-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-6
Thread 7: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5270365-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-7
Thread 8: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5271511-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-8
Thread 9: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5271596-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-9
Thread 10: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5271723-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-10
Thread 11: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5272046-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-11
Thread 12: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5272276-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-12
Thread 13: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5272398-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-13
Thread 14: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5272939-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-14
Thread 15: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5273119-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-15
Thread 16: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5273636-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-16
Thread 17: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5273827-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-17
Thread 18: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5274332-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-18
Thread 19: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5274571-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-19

Partially (?) answering my upthread question about R4 - from the Telegraph piece, it seems as if there will be a R4 if I understand this correctly:

Margaret Gribbon, Ms Peggie’s solicitor, said that new legal proceedings had now been launched against NHS Fife as a result of their actions.

“I can confirm that the handling of the investigation and the decision to proceed to a disciplinary hearing with the allegations will now be the subject of separate legal proceedings in the employment tribunal against Fife Health Board,” Ms Gribbon said.

I think she will be sacked. It's all over for Fife anyway so burn the W anyway and get her out.

Would a separate legal team be advising Fife on this, i.e. not their current tribunal barrister - can't remember her name. Messy either way. Can Naomi C intervene in the disciplinary?

Simple contempt of court would do?

Bonkers beyond description.

This will just peak many, many more people.

WTAF

I have no words and I can't even find a gif

Omg this latest development is awful! Bloody awful! This is a calculated witch hunt against her now.

Those absolute bastards.

Sandie if you are reading this, please use the money you received from me and many many others to help you, nobody will care if you no longer donate it charity as you said, as lovely as that is to do. You need this to fight these bastards. We will all help. This is an absolute outrage.

Unbelievable.

I'm struggling!

Absolutely infuriating. The entire Board at NHS Fife needs to go. The whole organisation needs top to bottom change

So the hospital can sack her, but the GMC can't look into DU despite his various ftp concerning beliefs?

Whooah

I can imagine there being actual riots if they do this. They must be absolutely insane.

I wouldn't be surprised if NHS Fife (and NMC) have received complaints about SP over her "misgendering" at tribunal. Yes, we all know the judge allowed it, but we also know that NHS Fife think their policies supersede actual law. After months of stalling the original investigation, perhaps they've decided they need to pull their finger out and act.

If the disciplinary meeting goes ahead, it won't be reported on live anywhere either will it? Very handy that if so.

NC can't ask questions about the law to non-legal/non-expert witnesses. You are right, these questions will be reserved for the HR people who are expected to know the law and policies. I also imagine the regulations will come up in the closing speech.

You'd wonder sometimes what is the point of the Law at all.

If anyone deserved an investigation and sacking, it's Dr U, for his dangerous beliefs, NOT Sandie! ( IMO )

NHS Fife are out of their tiny minds. Does anyone think this has been pushed by a certain member of the board?

Quite unbelievable! Poor Sandie.

Maybe they just consulted Isla Bumba!

Honestly, if I were SP I'd be wearing a wire in that meeting.

This is really astonishing. Normally disciplinary proceedings are suspended pending the outcome of the tribunal process. Fine, it seems they want to get rid of her - but this just opens them up to even bigger damages if they lose!

To me anyway, it is very scary that one person is being hounded and another protected by every means possible.

What is behind this, something is not quite right. David and Goliath.

The story of this disciplinary broke on a Sunday evening. Is that not odd in itself? Sandie was presumably notified sometime after the end of the trial on Friday and today? Didn't think NHS office staff worked on weekends.