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Trans doc 'raised formal patient safety concerns regarding nurse months later'
Dr Beth Upton has denied trying to get nurse Sandie Peggie 'struck off' at a tribunal hearing.
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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 Uptonâs 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 âalarmingâ allegation, out of three incidents in the formal complaint, was omitted.
Sandie Peggie (Image: PA)The tribunal heard Dr Uptonâs line manager, Dr Kate Searle, said in a statement: âBeth 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 didnât raise it at the time.â
Cross-examining Dr Upton, Ms Cunningham said: âDo you agree the resus incident is the most alarming of all three matters you raised?â
Dr Upton said: âIf we are taking purely about patient safety, someone refusing to communicate in resus is more seriousâ, and rejected claim by Ms Cunningham that identity âflattens everythingâ.
The doctor added: âIf someone is dying or is seriously unwell and the paramedic calls me âsirâ I will take the handover. Patient safety is one of the most important things.â
Ms Cunningham said: âIf the resus incident was true, what it means is Sandie Peggie is so bigoted because of your trans identity, she wasnât prepared to put that aside. Even when you were working together to potentially save the life of a seriously sick patient.â
Dr Upton said: âThat is a potential consequence.â
Ms Cunningham said: âIf that was true, she needed to be suspended at once on a charge of gross misconduct. If that was true, she would be a danger to patients and urgently needed to face fitness of practice proceedings.â
Dr Upton said: âFor all I know she could have been called away to something more serious was this is someone who has decided not to share space with me. I need to speak to a senior about this.â
The tribunal heard it was raised with Dr Searle on December 29 2023, but Dr Upton alleged it happened between October 25 and December 18, although in Ms Peggieâs evidence she dated it October 31.
Ms Cunningham added: âYou said it might have been misinterpreted, she might have been called away on an urgent task. That is an example of exactly why situations like this need to be investigated urgently.
âWas this a bigoted colleague who refused to work with you, in which case all hell should have broken loose? Or where something more urgent came up?â
Dr Upton said: âAt the time I was thinking of it purely as communication issue. Now I would consider it a patient safety issue. If it was I should have raised it sooner.â
However, Ms Cunningham said it was an âobligationâ to raise concerns âwithout delayâ in the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code, and asked if there was an equivalent for the General Medical Council and branded it âinexplicable if trueâ.
Dr Beth Upton (Image: PA)She added: âIf what you said was true, you had your own professional obligation to raise and escalate patient safety concerns.â
Dr Upton said it was not raised in a document sent on January 23 2024, as investigator Esther Davidson asked specifically for the incident on Christmas Eve.
Ms Cunningham said: âYou are a doctor with professional obligations and already delayed bringing this to attention, itâs your own obligation to make sure the board is informed.â
The doctor said that it was âmy obligation to inform a seniorâ, the tribunal heard.
Ms Cunningham said: âGiven the gravity of this incident can you explain why (the) phone log doesnât mention it?â
Dr Upton said: âAt the time my appraisal was this personâs left without me knowing. My appraisal was the situation was safe, so didnât need to be escalated. At that point I was considering it as a communication issue. Thatâs a failure on my side.â
The tribunal heard that the first written reference to the allegations was in an email to the British Medical Association (BMA) on December 26 2023, but not to the board.
Dr Upton denied wanting Ms Peggie to be âstruck off or kicked out of the hospitalâ and rejected suggestions from Ms Cunningham that stories were âmade upâ, the tribunal heard.
The doctor described Ms Peggie as âcapable, committedâ and denied bullying her.
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Ms Cunningham accused Dr Upton of âtelling storiesâ including âa much worse story about having abandoned a patient in resus as she couldnât bear to work with youâ, and said: âAll those things were to punish Sandie Peggie for standing up to you.â
Dr Upton said: âThe stories were not concocted. Iâm interested in a just resolution to what should have been a workplace dispute.â
Ms Cunningham said: âYou told a pack of lies. You are seeking to end Sandie Peggieâs unblemished 30-year career as a nurse for standing up to you.â
Dr Upton said: âIâm not interested in having her struck off or kicked out of the hospitalâ, and denied bullying Ms Peggie.
The tribunal heard that on Boxing Day 2023, Dr Upton sent an email to the BMA raising concerns Ms Peggie âmay try to oust me from the departmentâ.
Giving evidence, Dr Upton described being âsurprisedâ to learn Ms Peggie had been suspended, and said it was âcommunicated (that) this was a neutral act to protect the investigationâ.
Dr Upton said the career impacts of harassment being ruled on, could include a potential referral to the GMC and possible disciplinary proceedings, as well as being âforced to out myselfâ regarding getting changed every day at work.
The doctor said: âI feel afraid and upset for myself and for every other trans person in this country trying to be themselves.â
The tribunal continues.
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