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

I'll be sure to give the full c.v. instead a of a BIG HINT next time I'm extremely sensitive about links to vendors that sell stuff that celebrates knife crime.

This one?

(Saw it randomly so can't remember source)

Thank God for Boswell as I cannot keep up and ita that summary that is getting me through. I am utterly exhausted. God knows how Sandie and her legal team must feel. Hats off to you SP. Bloody hell.

Well he thinks that he can hide being a man, so who knows.

I couldn’t believe all I missed yesterday, getting home late from my NHS (not Fife but similarly captured) job.
I could have coped with being one thread behind but not 2.5!

I’d gone to the Tribunal Tweets Substack first and thought something must have gone awry as there was no pm session but was too tired to go through 2.5 whole threads so had to rely on other sources 😱 for the sorry tale of NHS Fife’s. fuckwittery.

I think I need to ask for the next week off but couldn’t say why. My NHS trust Comms team did a sad face piece after the Supreme Court decision, sympathising with anyone traumatised by the judgement and promising not to change any of our policies that allow people to be accommodated by their gender identity until ‘further guidance’ was published by NHS Employers 🙄

He might be. Also he might be stupid enough to not realise how incriminating whatever is on there is. Just like he's too stupid / emotionally illiterate to realise that being a bloke in the women's changing rooms is inherently intimidating.

Noone at NHS Fife seems to know or care how an investigation should be properly carried out. I expect DU doesn't have anything literally criminal on his phone but I wouldn't be so sure about some email, message etc that further supports the foregone conclusion of SP's guilt and/or at what point patient concerns were raised. I don't think he, or indeed anyone we have heard from at Fife, would see those as a problem.

That's from www.archive.ph if you search for https://www.nhsfife.org/news-updates/latest-news/2025/07/statement-on-the-recommencement-of-the-employment-tribunal/

Dr U used his phone to make 'contemporaneous notes' about Sandie waiting outside the CR etc. I think some of the things NC would like to explore are what other notes did he make and about whom, what contact did he have with the BMA while they were effectively shut for Christmas and is there anything to indicate the patient safety claim was retrofitted to enhance the case against SP or was it noted at the time (and if it was why wasn't it acted on then).

Indeed. Which is why some phones mysteriously end up in the sea just before a big court case #wagethachristie

He thinks a bit of foundation can hide his 5 o'clock shadow so...

Is it going to be like at the 10 pin bowling when someone with skills can hit strike after strike after strike?

Well certainly the CEO and Head of Communications positions are untenable. I’m still 8 pages behind and perhaps she still has a job, but they must be sacked no later than 9a.m Monday morning!

I'm confused. Fife said yesterday that they suspended Sandie over the allegations that she left a patient rather than work with Upton. But an HR professional there said it was "ludicrous" to have a nurse sat at home when she could just be put on shifts without him. If she really was suspended on suspicion of abandoning patients, why would HR think she should be working? Abandoning patients over a dispute with a colleague really would be a suspendable situation as patient safety is at risk as you couldn't be sure the person wouldn't do it again if they had a disagreement with someone else. So why did the HR person think it was "ludicrous" to suspend Sandie rather than just put her on different shifts to Upton?

One of the things I hope they have been asked to check is whether the notes were contemporaneous. That might be something Upton got wrong and thought he had covered up. If they were written later and/or altered that undermines his credibility as a witness even more than his performance in the witness box.

@ThatCyanCat Very good point.

What I assumed from EP's evidence was she encouraged him to connect with a BMA Peer Support network. I imagine this may largely not have involved any official BMA contact number...but will be connection with someone who 'has walked in his shoes'.

I know it's not good to make assumptions, but...

@ThatCyanCat
Fife are full of shit.

Perhaps they think the only evidence of why Sandie was suspended is their own paper trail and nobody will notice if they put out seven different versions...

Maybe the other nurses listed for the tribunal are ones that Upton also made notes about? For example the ones who waited outside while he changed

Maybe! It's almost as though they think everybody else is as stupid as they are.

I like to imagine that NC, Maya and JKR have been on the lookout for good test cases for a while - I know that JKR quite heavily funded another high-profile one but I can't remember which (anyone??). SP must have seemed the perfect candidate - 30 year unblemished nursing career, stable family background, gay daughter (so homophobia won't fly), and it must have been apparent after 5 minutes conversation that due process had been totally absent - she should have had written copies of all paperwork relating to the disciplinary and suspension. Plus it's apparent to all of us that SP herself has an absolute core of steel. I'm so glad that if there had to be a test case for this utter lunacy, they found someone so appropriate and - deserving isn't quite the word I want - possibly up for the fight?

I've just been reading DU's evidence. It stands out how acutely distressed and fearful he claims to have been as a result of the changing room incident. Seems a bit over the top to experience this kind of terror of a plain-speaking nurse. I appreciate it's unpleasant to believe you've been compared to a rapist, but both later agreed that hadn't actually happened.

Strikes me he needs to put on his cough big girl pants a bit more often, because life isn't always people tiptoeing around your delicate feelings.

You are right with the need to censor who we buy stuff from. I’m trying to do the same. I sympathise with your trauma. Xx

Ooh that would be interesting. I'm really hoping there's one witness who hasn't drunk the koolaid. Sandie can't be the only person working there who's not taken leave of her senses... can she?