Suspending nurse over conflict with trans doctor ‘ludicrous’, HR worker said

By Sarah Ward, Reporter14th February 2025News ScotlandBullying, Fife, Hospitals, News Scotland, NHS, Pay and Conditions, Sexual Abuse, Workforce

An HR worker described a decision to suspend a female nurse due to a conflict with a transgender doctor as “ludicrous”, an employment tribunal has heard.

Nurse Sandie Peggie, who has worked at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, for 30 years, took the Fife health board and Dr Beth Upton to tribunal after being suspended following an incident on Christmas Eve 2023 in the female changing room.

Ms Peggie (pictured) lodged a complaint of sexual harassment or harassment related to a protected belief under Section 26 of the Equality Act 2010 regarding three incidents when they shared a changing room: indirect harassment, victimisation, and whistleblowing.

She was suspended on January 3, 2024 following Dr Upton making an allegation of bullying and harassment, a tribunal in Dundee heard.

Ms Peggie’s line manager, Esther Davidson, gave evidence on Friday and said a decision to suspend Ms Peggie was “to protect both Sandie, Beth and the patients”, but she confirmed the nurse was not told of two allegations about patient safety in a meeting.

The tribunal heard Ms Peggie was made aware of patient safety allegations on March 28, 2024 in a letter – however her line manager said she “didn’t know the exact date” of an incident where Ms Peggie allegedly left a cubicle in a resuscitation unit when Dr Upton entered, while another allegation involved a “missing patient” on December 18, 2023.

Emails from NHS Fife’s HR department were read by Ms Peggie’s barrister, Naomi Cunningham, which questioned the validity of patient safety concerns due to lack of evidence.

The tribunal heard allegations were based on “perception”, and a misunderstanding of the concerns being raised.

One email, from HR worker Melanie Jorgensen, said: “I agree with advice where it feels risk can be managed. Do we have any evidence to support this concern?”

Another email from the same HR worker added: “I’m assuming patient safety concern relates to patients undergoing a similar process.”

Ms Cunningham said: “If an allegation doesn’t seem to have anything in it, you don’t necessarily launch a formal investigation.

“Melanie Jorgensen is doing her best to understand what the patient safety issue is. She seems to be speculating that trans-identifying patients might be in some ways mistreated by the claimant.”

Giving evidence, Ms Davidson said: “The allegations were about when Beth was in a cubicle with a patient, Sandie would leave.”

The tribunal also heard an HR worker described the fact Ms Peggie was spending shifts at home while on suspension as “ludicrous”.

An email from another HR worker, responding to Ms Jorgensen, said: “I reiterated that we have no evidence that she left the patient, that would only be her perception [Dr Upton].

“The nurse hasn’t even been asked about it yet. In all the years in A&E the nurse has never had any concerns.

“It was ludicrous to have a nurse at home two night shifts a week.”

However, Ms Davidson said: “I didn’t want a recurrence of the incident.”

Ms Cunningham said: “It is clear from communication from HR that they think there’s nothing in the resus incident or missing patient incident. They think the only risk is that Sandie will encounter Beth in a changing room or other single-sex space.

“They’re right aren’t they, that there had been no previous concerns about Sandie?

“The upshot of this conversation is there was at this point no corroboration at all. No corroboration has been brought to your attention or HR attention that Sandie was leaving cubicles when Beth entered them.”

Ms Davidson said: “There had been no other person to report that, no.”

An email from Dr Upton’s line manager, Dr Kate Searle, from December 30, said she had “ensured Beth doesn’t have any shifts with Sandie until the end of January”, which Ms Cunningham said would have been a “much less drastic and economical option”, the tribunal heard.

Ms Cunningham said another option would have been to “find Beth a single occupancy changing room and ask Beth to use it”, and added: “It’s a belief the whole trust is very committed to. That would have solved the whole problem.”

Ms Davidson said she “was told that was not an option” and denied “all hell broke loose” for Ms Peggie, but agreed she would have expected any concerns to be “escalated” by Dr Upton, saying: “I would have expected Beth to report it to clinical supervisor.”

Ms Cunningham said: “The aggressor and bully is Beth Upton. The victim of that bullying is Sandie Peggie.

“The reversal of victim and defender is what happened here, with the full support of the NHS board.”

The hearing has now been adjourned until July, and Ms Peggie’s legal team intends to request a forensic examination of Dr Upton’s phone, regarding notes, the tribunal heard.

It will resume again between July 16 and 30, and an application has been submitted to have consultant Dr Kate Searle added as a respondent.