The transgender doctor at the centre of the NHS Fife employment tribunal has denied telling a “pack of lies” to get a nurse who disagreed with her using the female changing room sacked.
Dr Beth Upton was accused of making up incidents including an allegation nurse Sandie Peggie had abandoned a patient because she did not want to work with Dr Upton.
Ms Peggie was suspended by NHS Fife following a row on Christmas Eve in 2023 when she confronted Dr Upton about the two sharing a changing room.
The A&E nurse, who worked at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital, is suing the health board and Dr Upton.
“You have done your very best to end Sandie Peggie’s unblemished career as punishment, haven’t you?” lawyer Naomi Cunningham asked.
‘I stood my ground’
But Dr Upton said: “I am not interested in having Sandie removed from the workplace.
“It’s not about punishing her for standing up to me when I harassed her, because I didn’t harass her.
“She harassed me and I stood my ground and tried to diffuse the situation”, Dr Upton said, referring to the locker room incident.
Dr Upton also denied wanting to punish the claimant, instead describing a complaint as an attempt to seek a “just and peaceful resolution to what could and should have been a workplace dispute”.
Sandy Kemp, the judge presiding over the case, has said it is almost certain not all evidence will be heard by Friday as scheduled.
And it could be July or later before the parties are able to return.
Speaking at the end of her cross examination on Wednesday, Ms Cunningham said Dr Upton’s punishment included lying about Ms Peggie asking what her chromosomes were.
“What you were doing was telling a pack of lies to get Sandie dismissed,” she added.
“That was a pack of lies, which if anyone had believed them, could have got her not merely dismissed but also struck off as a nurse,” the barrister said.
Ms Cunningham also accused Dr Upton of prioritising gender identity over patient safety.
She asked why the doctor did not immediately raise concerns over Ms Peggie’s alleged conduct with a patient when the incident occurred.
Dr Upton described being unsure why Ms Peggie had left the patient after the incident and thought it might have simply been a “communication issue” at the time.
Dr Upton said it was only with the context of the Christmas Eve encounter that it became clear it was due to the doctor’s transgender identity.
Ms Cunningham repeatedly referred to Dr Upton as a man during her cross-examination, despite the medic identifying as a woman.
Judge Sandy Kemp, who presided over a pre-tribunal hearing on January 21, previously ruled Ms Peggie could refer to Dr Upton as a man.
Third day of cross-examination
In one fiery exchange, after being asked if the demand for this identity to be respected would jeopardise patient safety, the A&E doctor said: “You don’t like me very much, if you were to collapse now with a heart attack I would treat you.”
The tribunal was briefly interrupted after Jane Russell KC, the lawyer representing NHS Fife and Dr Upton, claimed she heard someone “mocking” the medic from the public gallery.
The judge was forced to intervene, telling those present they could be removed.
This was the third and final day of Ms Cunningham’s cross-examination.
On Tuesday, the barrister had accused Dr Upton of participating in an “immersive role play” by wanting to use the women’s changing room.
The hearing later descended into chaos as online viewing was suspended due to interruptions and a further row over documents erupted.
The tribunal continues.
