NHS Fife tries to silence nurse - Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton - thread #52

[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 was 29 July 2025. It resumed again over 1 to 2 September for closing submissions.

The hearing commenced with Sandie Peggie giving evidence. Dr Beth Upton gave evidence from Thursday 6 February to Wednesday 12 February 2025. Sandie Peggie returned to give more evidence on 29 July 2025.

Access to view the second part of 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 #50 can be found in this thread: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5379717-sandie-peggie-list-of-threads-covering-employment-tribunal-and-afterwards

Thread 51: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5402652-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-51 1 September 2025 to 2 September 2025

I hope Searle, Davidson and Currer are shitting themselves

There is a distinct possibility they will settle if this tribunal finds against Fife. That means Sandie would get some money, but the issue would not be aired in court l

<I see others have responded before me but I don’t want the effort of typing this out to go to waste >

I presume Sandie has decided that she won’t be returning to work at that place and is taking a scorched earth approach and taking down every person who effectively said “burn the witch” during the investigation. The fact that they prevented her returning to work after a RTW plan was agreed must be fairly enraging.

Short term if she stopped now I think she'd have a period of relief, but then the constant what ifs would start up in her head and she'd forever be wondering about what might have been.

The toll of that may be worse, so I can understand her thinking of "I've started, so I'll finish".

Her strength though is off the bloody charts.

It's taken me all bloody night to realise. But do you remember when you asked your ma for something and she said, "I'll think about it..." She knew the answer was no but CBA to deal with the fall out there and then.

When The Big Sond said he'd think about JR's stupid application, and subsequently deferred it meant he just wanted his holiday in peace.

Just so the children will play nicely for five fucking minutes.

Only I have just embarrassed myself in Tesco by laughing at @nauticant's "Oh!".

I bet that is the same sound of muted panic that escaped the lips of Kate Searle et al when the postman knocked and demanded a signature...

And in the background there's NC making the sounds "He he he" every five minutes...

Me too. People like this are in every organisation and get away with this stuff almost all the time.

While I will always support Sandie to stop when she feels she needs to stop, if her backer is prepared to back on, this is a rare chance to fuck over this type of dreadful person. I hope she goes absolutely medieval on them.

Little ordinary people almost never get this chance and I am glad she is taking it.

PS Does Donald Trump own any hotels in France by any chance?

And did Sandie Peggie check these facts before booking her flights - otherwise she's just handed her ass on a plate to JR in the next set of hearings.

My guess is that a sincere, frank, and complete public apology along with an acknowledgement of the harm they carried out would do it. But would Searle in particular be able to do this?

I got confused for a moment with the bananarama and Ella Fitzgerald references and thought you were talking about the song It's a man, by way of If it walks, if it talks, if it's habits are a little bit peculiar but then I realised that is actually Betty Hutton not Ella Fitzgerald.

It's been a long day.

So is this going to be the 3 witches trial or should we refer to it as the Scottish trial.

If I was Sandie I dont think a full public apology would do it, I'd want some money from them or their insurers. Yes some organisations are cancelled and we know they can still find lawyers to take their case. Surely their legal advisers must at some stage start saying you have no reasonable prospect of success?

I think Sandie is at the point of What else can they do to me? They have already ruined my career trashing me and my family in the process.

I wonder if KS, ED and ?C (sorry - I've forgotten her first name!) are allowed to use "living in #sadtimes" as their reason for sick leave and/or claiming against their insurance.... But not for long, because, well, fuck 'em! I'm sure Jolyon will see them right. 🤣

While I think these 3 totally deserve this legal action against them I am also a little troubled that it's still just the women who are in the firing line...where are the men who bear some responsibility for this horror show? And what of Dr U?

Sandie is facing down the whole patriarchal, mysoginistic hierarchy and I am in absolute awe of this woman.

I can see the Good Laugh Project throwing its support behind Dr Upton because he is An Important Man experiencing Sad Times, but there is no chance on God’s green Earth that GLP would support three women.

Especially as, having read extensively into the matter for personal reasons, an apology made by the NHS is not an admission of wrong doing.

In fairness, it may be that it was only women who got the suspension extended. If no men were stupid enough to do so, or at least to leave a paper trail, there may be no viable options.

Dr Upton is one of the respondents in Sandie’s current tribunal so he’s already under legal action. Information came to light during the tribunal which means Sandie has good cause to go after the 3 women.

May I please tap into the greater knowledge here. NHS Fife said they couldn't settle the case in the 18/7 press release. My reading seems to suggest that the could have stopped it at any time by reaching terms with Ms Peggie. Have I got it wrong, or (and oh the horror of the possibility) are we back to magic wish fairy law again.

And to be further fair, when Searle sent her email of outrage to many senior medics, who would have included men, calling on them to declare their allegiance to Upton, all but one was wise enough to not engage and the only one who did engage did so in a brief and neutral way.

I think she had to want to settle, and she didn't. So they couldn't force it.

If she had, none of this would have seen the light of day, so it clearly was never just about compensation for her.

Edited to add that I think she may have had to if it had been decided that it would be unreasonable not to, but that must have been deemed not to be the case.

They could only settle if Sandie Peggie agreed to settle. They couldn't compel that. It was up to her. I suspect there have been offers to settle and she turned them down.

If she was paying for this case herself she'd have been under considerable pressure to settle but fortunately that isn't the case here.

Yes, the men seem to have done a much better job of keeping their hands clean than the women. Jamie Doyle not being a witness is another good example.

Yes they were banking on her, a working class nurse, not having very deep pockets. Luckily she's been wearing someone else's coat.

Agree, but I'd also point out that Fife and Upton did have the option not to challenge Sandie further, at any point. Just because you're being forced to a tribunal by the other sides refusal to accept settlement doesn't oblige you to present a case.

They don't have to ask the accused initially, but they do need to give them a chance to defend themselves and deny the accusation.