NHS Fife tries to silence nurse - Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton - thread #32

[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 resumed 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] by 5pm on Wednesday 9 July. Detailed instructions were provided here:

drive.google.com/file/d/16-9POEZ7yHWUr6EmbfquJZO18Gv78bSm/view

The hearing is being live tweeted by x.com/tribunaltweets and there's additional information here: tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/peggie-vs-fife-health-board-and-dr-005. 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.ph/WSSjg.

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

Links to previous threads #1 to #29 can be found in the header of thread #30.

Thread 30: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5375337-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-30
Thread 31: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5375819-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-31

There's something on BBC 1 at the moment that has that Green Wing feel. I think it's called St Denis Medical.No surrealism but still had me and DH snorting out loud.

It's possibly linked with the joint defence at the tribunal? It's all a complete mess and I wouldn't be surprised if on Monday we find Fife asking for separate representation and to unhitch themselves from his wagon. Whoever agreed to it must be rueing the day.

I'm interested in whether NHS Fife could dissolve the joint defence arrangement uniltaterally or whether they'd need consent from Upton. I suppose the answer might be contained within the terms of a joint defence agreement, should the arrangement have been formalised in this way.

Looking at that witness list published by the Courier I see that in addition to the phone forensics guy there's an 'information security manager'. I've looked him up and as far as I can see he's not a Fife employee, but he could be a contractor dealing with their systems? Or be an expert witness called by them to counter phone forensics guy? Either way, it looks like there'll be some sort of technical evidence from him.

I can’t get into the courier. Any chance of a screen shot. 🙏

( I'll need to book a day off for Searle 🤣🤣)

Think NC might be suggesting in her questioning there’s more missing documents. Sounds likely tbh

A day might not be enough.

They could decide to keep her in the witness box all week just for the LOLZ.

Unlikely anyone would miss her.

NHS Fife legal doesn’t seem to give much of a flying fuck about the requirements of the Information Commissioner.

ETA: I simply can’t keep up with the discussion! So sorry that I’ve likely repeated others.

Here you go. Searle and Borwick the phone forensics guy are mentioned separately.

Oh, and it's occurred to me that the info security manager might be a witness for SP to explain the mysterious gap in the Kate Searle email chain a PP mentioned above.

Sounds like you've had the same thought!

Some people are by nature quite courageous and outspoken. That certainly applies to me, and I assume Sandie is of that disposition too. She felt compelled to speak out in an intimate situation in which she felt both compromised and also under the pressure of a code of silence not to speak out. She knew that her own insitution was against her.

Upton knew his presence was an issue...how could he not know? Sandie's words were probably unplanned, unrehearsed, and were those that came to her immediately.

If we remember that the hiatus was a result of NC establishing that NHS Fife had not disclosed all relevant documents and time was needed to interrogate the late submissions then it would be logical that NCs team would call more witnesses after reviewing the later submissions?

So originally the claimants witnesses were heard first it would make sense that either thr additional material NCs team get to call more witnesses?

I’m saying that in hope because I hope this emergency nurses and the forensic comms guy being reported as new entries are not for the defence….?

How funny. I haven't had time to really get into it but have been dabbling in genealogy for a few years and enjoy it for all the reasons mentioned by posters on this thread. I would never have speculated that it would be a common connection between people on this board, but it makes sense!

I wouldn't assume there is any agreement of that sort. Fife appears to be deeply allergic to putting anything in writing unless it's a knee jerk reaction. Policy - nope, risk assessment - nope, written statement from the other party - nope. Burn the witch email reaction - yep, bat shit statement mid trial - how many versions do you want???

We know one consultant didnt respond, she said that in evidence. The other consultants most likely would not have known what investigation had already taken place.

Fife NHS Board
Confirmed
MINUTE OF THE NHS FIFE CLINICAL GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE MEETING HELD
ON FRIDAY 12 JANUARY 2024 AT 10AM VIA MS TEAMS
Present:
Arlene Wood, Non-Executive Member (Chair)
Colin Grieve, Non-Executive Member
Anne Haston, Non-Executive Member
Aileen Lawrie, Area Clinical Forum Representative
Janette Keenan, Director of Nursing
Dr Chris McKenna, Medical Director
Lynne Parsons, Area Partnership Forum Representative
Carol Potter, Chief Executive
Joy Tomlinson, Director of Public Health
In Attendance:
Nicky Connor, Director of Health & Social Care
Claire Dobson, Director of Acute Services
Peter Donaldson, Information Security Manager (for item 6.2)

Ooh, good sleuthing @nauticant !

Do we know what item 6.2 might be about?

This really made me laugh out loud.

What else is there to say? They really have fucked it from start to finish. And am I right in thinking that the email from KS wasn't included in the original evidence, even though it clearly should have been?

Sounds like I’ll be spending a lot of time in my own little portaloo on site. It’s ok. The sign outside says where no man or beast should dare to tred. 😁.

Thank you those who took time to help me get up to speed.

Oh they really tried to not hand over the smoking gun but unfortunately for them NC is a wee bit too sharp to let them shove it down the back of the fridge and walk away whistling.

I'm sure there will be screenshots around but in case you want to look straightaway at any article you can copy the website address into archive.ph and/or archive.org

Most popular media outlets will be routinely archived by bots within hours of publication. Given the interest in this case, many quite obscure articles about Fife NHS are archived by casual observers !

We need that in a Fife accent please 😆

I sure would like to know how freshly-graduated Isla Bumpa managed to climb the greasy pole from bartender and contact tracing practitioner to £50k a year Equalitiy and Human Rights Lead Officer at NHS Fife so quickly. With apparently no relevant qualifications or experience.

Does the NHS have a casting couch? Asking for a friend.

I think he also rolled back on any claim that her tone was aggressive or intimidating