NHS Fife tries to silence nurse - Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton - thread #34

[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 and tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/peggie-vs-fife-health-board-and-dr-bd6. 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-sil
ence-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
Thread 32: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5376072-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-32
Thread 33: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5376608-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-33

I haven't said anything about the case. Other posters need to be more careful though

JR When did she ask?
CM Mon am (?26 Feb). I checked she had report from an MSP. I wanted a faciltated discussion w SP and to discuss next way forward. The convo happened on Tues. I wanted to follow up formally via her personal email
JR When did u 1st meet SP?
CM 6th March

I'd never met her before. I wasnt aware of her GC views.and didnt line manage her. I cld look at the Sx dispassionately. I didnt know about her beleifs until an hr before the mtg and she had other beleifs others might not have, I was focussing on getting her back into the workplace

CM is giving the impression that she knew what she was doing and followed a process. Interesting - I wonder will it stand up to scrutiny?

From TT -

JR Did this mtg with Miss Davidson did anything else come up?
CM Not really, she said she was anti-trans. But again, I'd never met her before. The incident was about DU, and ED highlighted that SP had transphobic views due to an incident in a CR. I didnt have any other

Agree. My age is between 0 and 100.

(From following TT) - so an hour before a suspension review meeting with SP, CM heard from ED that SP was transphobic and that also there were hearsay comments about her being homophobic and racist? That is appalling.

So they had already decided that SP was guilty of transphobia because of her GC beliefs.

Received a response to my email re commenting whilst watching the remote link.

@nauticant

She said she was anti trans??

CM has said 'she just said she was anti trans because ...(She didn't want to share the changing room? ) Did she actually say the words 'anti -trans, or is that your judgement?

Is this in response to the avocado in potato salad? 😂

JR What other beliefs?
CM Heresay that homophobic and racist but I tried to disregard views that werent documented

'tried to disregard'!

Esther Davidson, SP's line manager. You will find a useful list of abbreviations on p1 of this thread.

Anti-trans!!! Transphobic views!!! Homophobic!!! Racist!!! Hung, drawn and quartered right from the off.

From TT -

documentation. I went in blind
JR What other beliefs?
CM Heresay that homophobic and racist but I tried to disregard views that werent documented
JR What did u know about r'ship between SP and DU
CM I only knew about Xmas eve incident. Unless directly involved nothing else

Interesting… 11:25am
The reason that today's session started so late was because of a private hearing this morning.
Not being told what was discussed, but Sandie Peggie's legal team has confirmed that "they have asked Fife Health Board to confirm the names of those individuals who signed off the statement they issued on Friday and still await a reply."

"CM Not really, she said she was anti-trans."

This seems an unlikely way for her to express her views. I hope NC will dig in.

TT:

JR Did this mtg with Miss Davidson did anything else come up? CM Not really, she said she was anti-trans. But again, I'd never met her before. The incident was about DU, and ED highlighted that SP had transphobic views due to an incident in a CR. I didnt have any other documentation. I went in blind JR What other beliefs? CM Heresay that homophobic and racist but I tried to disregard views that werent documented JR What did u know about r'ship between SP and DU CM I only knew about Xmas eve incident. Unless directly involved nothing else

Esther Davidson set Lottie Myles up for this meeting by explaining that SP was a bigot, didn't she?!

"Good Morning,

I refer to the above named proceedings.

Your message of 15 July 2025 has been considered by EJ Kemp. He states that the Guidance refers to live tweeting of the evidence. His view is that that applies where the tweets are a material, meaning reasonably substantial, summary of the evidence given by the witness. If that is intended to be done to such an extent permission requires to be sought. If the intention and practise is to post comments, with occasional references to evidence not to a material extent, that does not require permission. This message may be passed to others if you wish.

Yours faithfully,

Aliya Arslan

Administrative Officer

Edinburgh Employment Tribunal | 54-56 Melville Street, Edinburgh | EH3 7HF"

While the picture loads

Good news! Thanks for posting.

Is that a whiff of 'Essence de FAFO' I smell?

I don’t understand where the patient safety concerns are supposed to fit in. We keep hearing about them, but whenever the witnesses start discussing investigations it’s only ever regarding XmasEve. And is the first time anyone is actually asking SP’s viewpoint of the situation?

The incident was about DU, and ED highlighted that SP had transphobic views due to an incident in a CR.

Again, the cross-examination will be interesting!

That seems a fair way of wording it to me. As much as someone might try to be neutral, it’s very hard to completely disregard what you’ve previously been told. I would count it in her favour that he has acknowledged that, because it should, in theory, mean that she’s more likely to consider any bias it causes.

Yes she did!! This is disgusting treatment of a nurse of 30 years! It makes me so mad!!

Does this mean we can swear where appropriate?