Nurse listed 13 staff opposed to allowing trans doctor in female spaces, tribunal told

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Sandie Peggie has named 13 other hospital colleagues who agreed that a trans-identifying male doctor should not be allowed to use a women's changing room.
Mrs Peggie returned to the witness box at her employment tribunal against NHS Fife and trans medic Dr Beth Upton, to counter claims that she was the only person who had voiced objections.
The 51-year-old told how she was upset as she had not wanted to reveal the identities of the staff from Kirkcaldy's Victoria Hospital, because of the 'toxic' way she has been treated.
They included receptionists, nurses and a consultant who objected to the born-male medic being given the go-ahead to use the women-only space by NHS Fife bosses.
She told her lawyer Naomi Cunningham: 'Since this happened and the way I was treated, I didn't want anybody else to be put in the same predicament.
'It's very toxic, and I didn't want any bad feeling towards them.'
The mum told Ms Cunningham she was 'quite sad' about having to name them because 'some of them are very close colleagues'.
The revelation came as Mrs Peggie, the final witness in the landmark tribunal, defended herself against claims of racism and a hate campaign against Dr Upton.
Mrs Peggie brought proceedings against NHS Fife and Dr Upton after she was suspended from work for challenging the trans medic in the female changing room on Christmas Eve 2023.
The tribunal has previously heard Mrs Peggie tell how she needed to use the changing room because she had a sudden and heavy period.
She took legal action claiming being made to change with a biological man is unlawful. Her case has become the most high-profile tribunal case in the country - and as it continues increasingly bitter.
Mrs Peggie named the 13 other hospital workers who agreed with her - adding to the three staff she revealed when she first gave evidence in February.
During an hour of questioning by both her lawyer and NHS Fife KC Jane Russell, the tribunal heard how colleagues who had been supportive turned to 'one of shock' when she informed them she had been suspended by the health board.
She told the tribunal: 'They couldn't believe what had happened to me.'
And she revealed how her Royal College of Nursing representative had told her to 'get a hobby' following her suspension.
In May we revealed the nurse, who had been a member of the RCN union for 30 years had launched legal action against them for failing to represent her.
Mrs Peggie also addressed claims that she was racist telling the tribunal that she had been in a group chat for years with colleagues she had holidayed with several times.
Messages revealed Mrs Peggie had shared jokes about the Pakistani floods, which had been described as 'racist' by one group member in evidence this week.
But Mrs Peggie insisted that while they were 'distasteful', the message was sent as 'dark humour to her friends'.
And she said that a comment she was alleged to have made about posting a 'packet of bacon through the letter box of a mosque', was in fact made by a paramedic.
NHS Fife's KC Ms Russell put it to her: 'Have you realised that these messages don't put you in a very good light and so you have thought of a way to explain them away, and you've come up with the explanation of 'dark humour' which you have repeated again and again?'
The nurse rejected this but admitted she had used racial slurs but said she was 'brought up like that'.
She rejected claims that she had embarked on a 'hate campaign' against Dr Upton.
The veteran nurse who has an unblemished record, told Ms Russell: 'I don't have any bad feelings towards trans people, I just don't believe they should be in women's changing areas.'
The tribunal was told Mrs Peggie asked a colleague for a picture of 'that weirdo Beth', and claims, which Mrs Peggie rejected, that she had called the medic a 'weirdo' at her birthday lunch.
The nurse, who was cleared of misconduct in a separate internal NHS probe earlier this month, said she did not think the medic was a 'weirdo'.
She told the tribunal: 'I think he looks strange because he's very obviously a man who wants to wear women's clothing.'
Mrs Peggie rejected Ms Russell's suggestion that the only reason she went to the changing room that night was to 'confront Dr Upton in a way that you knew was objectional'.
Earlier, Fife NHS Dr Maggie Currer claimed it was an 'error' to have told colleagues that Mrs Peggie had been referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
When quizzed about Dr Upton being 'biologically male' the emergency department consultant told the tribunal: 'She's chromosomally male. And as far as I'm aware, although I have not examined Dr Upton, she is also, in terms of secondary sexual characteristics, in terms of genitalia, male but I have not examined her.'
The tribunal will reconvene in September for oral submissions.