Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton, following Employment Tribunal judgment - thread #60

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Judgment was handed down on 8 December 2025:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6936ce28a6fc97b81e57436a/S_Peggie_v_Fife_Health_Board__Dr_Upton.pdf

Sandie Peggie, a nurse at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy (VH), 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.
Following handing down of the judgment on 8 December 2025, on 11 December 2025, it was announced by Sandie Peggie and her legal team that they would be pursuing an appeal.

The hearing was 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.

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: 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
Thread 52: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5403218-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-52 2 September 2025 to 4 September 2025
Thread 53: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5404208-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-53 3 September 2025 to 1 October 2025
Thread 54: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5418690-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-54 28 September 2025 to 21 November 2025
Thread 55: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5447019-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-55 19 November 2025 to 8 December 2025
Thread 56: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5456749-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-56 8 December 2025 to 9 December 2025
Thread 57: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5457132-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-57 9 December 2025 to 11 December 2025
Thread 58: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5458443-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-following-employment-tribunal-judgment-thread-58 11 December 2025 to 12 December 2025
Thread 59: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5459115-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-following-employment-tribunal-judgment-thread-59 12 December 2025 to 17 December 2025

Thanks for posting this MyrtleLion.

I would love to meet the "some people" who would mistake Upton for a woman for more than a nano-second. It would have to be very dark and they would have to be very drunk or high as kites.

Or an Employment Tribunal Judge called Kemp.

I wonder if he is a part-time cross-dresser himself, if he has a "trans" relative or if he's been leaned on politically. Only time will tell.

I guessed you were from NW based on your username.

I did wonder when Judge Kemp last had his eyes tested. Unfortunately that's not a basis for appeal!

I don't remember anyone testifying they didn't know Dr. Upton was trans who knew him.

I can't see how that paragraph made it in to the Judgement. It seems entirely irrelevant.

Obviously as well how Dr. Upton dresses for a tribunal is very different from work and may have started hormone treatment or had facial surgery etc since last year.

I wonder if he is a part-time cross-dresser himself,

I have to say that isn't a possibility I had previously considered. I wonder how that would go down in terms of the potential for bias, if it were the case.

There's always a welcome here, if you are passing by with a bundle...of washing😉

I'd be really interested in a direct quote from one of these policies, or to be pointed to one if any are publicly accessible.

I have wondered at a few points in the judgement if Kemp was spitefully or petulantly twisting the evidence that came out from NC's cross examinations. NC asked all the Fife witnesses something along the lines of whether they could tell DU was a man, and one or two did fudge the answers, which seems to be what the panel seized upon for the decision.

This was NC to Louise Curran:

NC - but you said he is in the dept enough to know Beth and because people saw him regularly, then you know that people only have to see Dr U to see he's not female.
LC No
NC Are you saying you weren't aware he's a man
LC Not at first, not until engaged in conversation. Not sure what diff

NC- do you agree people have differing ability to recognise that a man is a man and that people who have suffered sexual abuse quite attune to that?
LC yes
NC - but even so, it's not unreasonable to be upset by a man in CR

I found much of the July witness testimony to be extremely stressful because I couldn't imagine lying in court, and it felt painful listening when the witnesses were clearly lying eg about the very late disclosure emails.

But after seeing a case like this, it seems that lying pays. The more you can get of your version of events entered into the record, then the more likely it seems that it may tip the balance to make your side will win. It doesn't seem to be worth telling inconvenient truths or even being honest about what you can't recall or be sure about. You seem to need to just throw as much shit at the court wall as possible and hope some will stick and then slide down into the Judge's notes. I hate it so much.

I have witnessed an extraordinary amount of lying under oath. Both in the crown court and the coroners court over a period of decades. The level of corruption at all levels and in all institutions in this country is absolutely shocking.

Would you consider that Dr Upton, given what he has stated in the tribunal, would act in the patient's best interests and not in his own best interests?

@WearyAuldWumman @KittyWilkinson Sorry to hear your stories. Do you think there is an institutional tendency in the NHS to misdiagnose strokes? Does it save money, e.g. for rehabilitation?

Sorry to derail. I'm going to be having this conversation in hospital later this morning. The doctors have reportedly decided that aged P didn't have a stroke after all and it's just "a sign of getting older". They seem to have ignored the bit in the medical history where we report that on Monday she went from being able to discuss banking details on the phone one minute, to four hours later when she was suddenly unable to use a phone, turn off a gas ring or recognise the sound of a smoke alarm, and the A&E doctor's observation that she couldn't use her left hand or notice people or objects in her left field of vision.

@DustyWindowsills misdiagnosing strokes would not save the NHS money, it would be the opposite.

Even in the short term, e.g. to free up a bed on a stroke ward?

Yes i agree. Being non verbal does not necessarily = lack of capacity

Why so sarcastic? What's your beef? Upton was born male. It's impossible for him to be a biologically female.

It doesn't save money. The end result was that DH needed rehab when he wouldn't have had he been properly diagnosed.

It was a busy Saturday morning and a young lad with no experience was left in charge. He hadn't been able to move his left arm at all when he got in. An hour later he could move it - but without proper control. The young doctor thought this meant it was a TIA and resolving itself. No one spoke to me. They assumed it had happened during the night.

The stroke happened about 7.30. i got him in straight away (via paramedics). By the time the more senior doctor arrived it must have been around 10.30. He questioned me, ascertained the time of the stroke - which the paramedics must have known - and sent DH for a scan.

When DH got back, the doctor phoned a consultant for advice. I heard bits of the phonecall. He was told that it was his call and he went with no injection because they were at the edge of the 4 hr window.

I have no idea why only one young doctor had been on. When I was in there for myself, the day before the Upton/Peggie encounter, the A&E appeared to be fully staffed.

I know that other stroke patients in the same day as DH also had a calamitous outcome.

DH was in the Acute Stroke ward for a fortnight. There was a young man in there who'd been waiting for rehab for 3 months.

DH was transferred to the best rehab - Cameron Hospital. They tried to persuade me to accept Glenrothes: "It'll be easier for you. Closer to home."

I refused. They got him a place at Cameron - I think because they were trying to avoid an official complaint.

DH was in Cameron for more than 3 months, learning to walk again.

After the stroke, he couldn't even sit up and had two falls in the Vic because he wasn't properly supervised.

The first time, he forgot he'd had a stroke and fell out of bed, trying to get to a toilet. This was less than 24 hrs after. The second time, I was in the room with him and they were positively triumphant about that. The fact of the matter is they'd not had him assessed and stupidly had put him in an ordinary chair - as pointed out by an auxiliary.

When he got into Cameron, he was black down one side. The nurses there asked what had happened to him. I think they thought he was a victim of elder abuse.

A man who had his stroke the same day as DH was found under his bed after a fall. I know because his wife told me.

When someone is paralysed, they have to be given a bed somewhere.

Yes i agree. Being non verbal does not necessarily = lack of capacity

Nobody said that it did. I said that it's likely that a non-verbal patient doesn't have capacity which is true.

@DustyWindowsills

That sounds very much like a stroke to me. Ask the bastards why they haven't given a scan.

I get where you're coming from now. They might just be trying to claim dementia to avoid rehab. You need to kick up merry hell.

Each hospital is supposed to have a Dementia Champion. If they're now claiming that P has dementia (which can happen as a result of a stroke) they're still entitled to treatment. No matter the cause of the cognitive issues, you can still ask to speak to the Dementia Champion and ask why your P is not receiving the necessary treatment. The DC should help you advocate on your P's behalf.

My SIL down in Basingstoke way had a stroke. I diagnosed her issues over the phone from Scotland. She couldn't speak and couldn't recognise people standing on her right. They thought she could no longer recognise her son. Not so - he was standing on the 'wrong side'.

Clearly, left side of the brain had been hit, leaving her without speech and right side neglect. (Term for brain not being able to recognise what the eye sees. DH had left side neglect.) I told my BIL and nephew and they were able to advocate for SIL/BIL's wife.(Hospital had diagnosed stroke, however.)

@DustyWindowsills

Yes - sorry. Now I get where you're coming from. Sounds like the bandits are trying to save money - just diagnose dementia and then no stroke rehab required.

Ask for the hospital Dementia Champion. (I got that advice from the Alzheimer's Society when the Vic made her Nil by Mouth - starved and deprived her of water. She had a chest infection and UTI which they weren't treating.)

You can also ask whether your P has been checked for an infection - it can give dementia type symptoms but can also happen same time as a TIA or stroke.. I think that probably happened with my mum...but she already had a dementia diagnosis so they tried to write her off.

When you go in, make sure someone is with you. You need a witness.

Try Googling the hospital name plus "Dementia Champion".

@DustyWindowsills

Ask what the scan showed. Ask to see it. If they haven't done a scan, they should do one. Sounds a bit like what happened to DH.

I only got to see DH's scan because one of the nurses was DH's former pupil. It was his left side that was hit, but the stroke centre was close to the centre so his right side was affected as well - his left hand was useless, but his right hand was shaking.

Yes, I think they're trying to save rehab money.

I'm so sorry you're going through this. I hope you see my responses.

No doctor will deliberately misdiagnose a stroke to save the NHS rehab money.

One would hope.

Whatever the reason, the sad fact is that misdiagnosis happens. ETA Specifically with regard to the elderly. It's not so much the money as avoiding the hassle of organising rehab.

Elderly? Dementia, degeneration of old age as the diagnosis? No rehab needed. Straight to the elderly ward.

In my dad's case, he was completely compos mentis but delirious because of a chest infection. They tried to insist that he had dementia. (The Vic again. They got more than one bad inspection report, re treatment of the elderly.)