Trans doctor denies trying to get nurse 'struck off' at a tribunal hearing
A transgender doctor raised formal concerns about patient safety eight months after an incident involving a female nurse occurred but denied trying to get her struck off, 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 rooms.Ms Peggie, known as the claimant, 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.That came after she was suspended in January 2024 following Dr Upton making an allegation of bullying and harassment.Dr Upton gave evidence on Wednesday at a tribunal in Dundee, and was asked by lawyer Naomi Cunningham, representing Ms Peggie, why contemporaneous notes-to-self by Dr Upton did not include an allegation around patient safety, raised internally on December 29, two months after the incident supposedly happened on October 31.The allegation that Ms Peggie abandoned a patient in the resuscitation unit was raised in a formal complaint by Dr Upton’s solicitor on June 11 2024, however, Ms Cunningham said it was so serious it would have resulted in immediate suspension and gross misconduct.Five contemporaneous notes were cited but Ms Cunningham asked why the most “alarming” allegation, out of three incidents in the formal complaint, was omitted.The tribunal heard Dr Upton’s line manager, Dr Kate Searle, said in a statement: “Beth has all the notes including the incident where the other person appeared to leave the room and stopped doing resus because Beth entered.
Unfortunately she didn’t raise it at the time.”Cross-examining Dr Upton, Ms Cunningham said: “Do you agree the resus incident is the most alarming of all three matters you raised?”Dr
