NHS Fife tries to silence nurse - Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton - thread #39

[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-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
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
Thread 34: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5377387-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-34
Thread 35: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5377598-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-35
Thread 36 mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5378031-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-36
Thread 37: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5378200-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-37
Thread 38: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5378463-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-38

One of my favourites (Burnistoun - Voice Activated Lift in Scotland)

But unlike the other reports of the tribunal, this one isn't on the front page or even on the news page. You have to go looking for it in the Scotland section.

Trying to bury bad news?

@MarieDeGournay thank you

Boswell has written a long opinion today, basically. I do follow him.

Oh well, never mind. I'm sure there'll be much more crazy tomorrow and I'll be home based tomorrow so I expect I will be caught up with what I need to know

I find it all very overwhelming. But I dared to mention it to 2 other professionals today - and they didn't know anything about it. Which is interesting.

That's very interesting. So KS can 'honestly' say when she searched her inbox and sent emails she found nothing. That waffle about them maybe disappearing after 30 days. Knowing full well that they have been archived to a sub folder.

It just gets worse. Roll on the Fife IT guy.

I would forget everything. Including my own name before I'd get sucked into that morass. Especially as a HCA is bottom of the food chain in a hospital I guess.

So the witness that Kate Searle so urgently wanted to protect from press attention is now being named in the press because of Kate Searle. I’m not sure why she even brought it up? Was it just to add to the impression of racism? Because I don’t think anyone knew she’d independently spoken to that witness until she alluded to it (did they?) and it ultimately proved very uncomfortable for her because she was forced to admit it was yet more improper behaviour.

This was a live blog. May be helpful?
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/sandie-peggie-v-beth-upton-live-updates-from-nhs-fife-trans-changing-room-employment-tribunal-5237645

I find it hard to believe that a senior management person who is experienced in investigations etc would actually believe that emails get properly deleted.

How does she think FOI requests get answered, for example? Either not very competent or not very truthful.

I think more likely deleted as usual setting for bins is to clear every 30 days. I think she just accidentally confessed to deleting it.

It has now made its way to the front page, quite a way down.

I feel bad for Rehana who just wanted to stay out of it for whatever reason, and who can blame her, and is now named in the press.

But I'm sure if she had anything to say which would have helped Fife's defence, they'd have made damn sure she was there.

Personally I think SP is an unpleasant person who is certainly transphobic and may be racist Interestingly she is not supported by the Royal College of Nursing

Mind you, I also find it hard to believe that a senior person would send out the ridiculous emails that she did and she really did do that so... 🤷

Yes it is interesting that she isn't supported by RCN.

Not for the reasons you think, I would wager.

That's fine, you're entitled to your opinion.

It will be interesting to see what the tribunal finds.

Trial was late starting due to procedural matters. No orders will be made about Fifes madcap statement last week. Sandies line manager turned up, was fragile, said little.
Kate Searle came to stand. Wailed, lied, threw the racist card, harassed witnesses, embellished a Datix report and generally got picked apart by NC.
Due to the Supreme Court case judgment in FWS being published in the break we have to wait for submissions on that before we can once again freely call Dr Upton a man. But that’s procedural. He is a man. But Dr Searle said she only ever tell Dr Upton was a laydeee. So she lied again.

In two(ish) lines -

Good for Sandies case. Witchfinder general went off on one and never expected to get caught out. Met NC - got caught out.

Not managing to keep up with threads properly due to work, but my main takeaway from today is that lots of people don't know how email subject Iines work.

Is that you Tandora? (Sorry @nauticant couldn't resist - won’t feed the worms 🪱 )

Good for you sharing your opinion. We are polar opposites.

They are next up for the stand.

Has the disruptatron rota changed for this evening?

It's just wearing a different hat.

Hope so, we could do with a change.

Right you are.

Perhaps you've got the receipts then, because damty sure the tribunal hasn't produced any yet.

If you could link to the legislation that means 'people I consider not nice' forfeit their rights under the Equality Act, that'd be peachy too. Thanks ever so.

The emails may not be deleted, but if like our place they are no longer accessible by the individual (though presumably by IT, if IT is competent, which is a pretty big if when it comes to NHS IT systems). I'm in a different trust, but the search function on our email is appallingly dysfunctional.

With regards to the tears, you don't suppose that KS thinks sobbing in public would help to reinforce in the panel's mind what an incredibly feminine womanly thing it is to sob in public, so Dr Upton must be a delicate feminine flower? A&E consultants are not known for their tendency to weep under pressure.