There's a very interesting article in The Courier today. It's definitely been worth my £1 for 3 months subscription, which fortunately will also cover the submissions at the start of September.
The article is headed "How NHS Fife reacted as Sandie Peggie and Beth Upton row went public"
The health board had urged the Kirkcaldy nurse to stay quiet about her suspension while she was being investigated.
But emails show how worried NHS Fife staff reacted when it became clear Ms Peggie’s story was about to hit national headlines.
It goes on to say that Sandie Peggie did not initially go public, but she went to her MP, Neale Hanvey, who urged her to do so.
Emails from health board staff show they were particularly concerned about a press release from Mr Hanvey in which he referred to a "trans identifying male" and the effect this would have on Dr Upton.
The head of nursing wrote (whose primary responsibility, I assume, is towards nurses not towards doctors) that she wondered if someone would let Dr Upton know that this was happening. "“The terminology is completely wrong and she should not be referred to as a ‘trans identifying male’".
“I worry this may cause additional upset."
Further down the article it quotes Mr Hanvey as saying
While they tried to limit the support Sandie could access under the cloak of confidentiality, there seems to have been no boundaries set for senior staff discussing tactics.
My conclusion from that article may be that, when the situation was first made public, the director of nursing's main concern is not the publicity this brings to NHS Fife but that Dr Upton may be upset by an article which does not name him but does refer to a trans identifying male.
“There was a slight escalation recently with a local MP candidate who is supporting the other party making a press release which made it into a few news outlets,” the Victoria Hospital doctor wrote.
“It was largely nonsense and didn’t have anything particularly identifying in it.”