A nurse who challenged a trans doctor for using women’s changing rooms is being threatened with the sack by the NHS after “misgendering” her colleague, The Telegraph can reveal.
Sandie Peggie, who brought a landmark employment tribunal against NHS Fife and Dr Beth Upton, is understood to have been told to attend a conduct hearing on Friday which her employer has warned could lead to her dismissal.
The nurse, who had a previously unblemished 30-year career, is accused of committing misconduct by challenging the presence of Dr Upton, who was born male but identifies as a woman, in female facilities at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy on Christmas Eve 2023.
At the centre of the allegation which now threatens to ruin Ms Peggie’s career is that she “misgendered” Dr Upton by using male pronouns, including when speaking to other NHS colleagues.
Following an internal investigation, separate to ongoing employment tribunal proceedings, a NHS Fife panel will also consider two allegations that Ms Peggie compromised patient safety by refusing to work effectively with Dr Upton.
What was said in the changing room is disputed by Ms Peggie, who accepts calling Dr Upton a male but denies claims of “cornering” or “haranguing” her physically larger colleague.
Her legal team has accused Dr Upton of fabricating the two occasions in which she is accused of jeopardising patient safety, which were not made until months after they were said to have occurred. Ms Peggie insists they did not happen.
Experts told The Telegraph that the move from NHS Fife to push ahead with possible dismissal was “extraordinary” given that Jane Russell, the lawyer representing the health board and Dr Upton, had publicly accused the nurse of harassment and bullying towards Dr Upton in tribunal proceedings.
It is claimed that this pre-judged the outcome of the health board’s own investigation process, and would hand Ms Peggie strong legal grounds to challenge the outcome and any sanction.
A senior MSP said it was “beyond belief” that a nurse with three decades of experience was facing the sack for speaking out in defence of single-sex spaces.
Margaret Gribbon, Ms Peggie’s solicitor, said that new legal proceedings had now been launched against NHS Fife as a result of their actions.
“I can confirm that the handling of the investigation and the decision to proceed to a disciplinary hearing with the allegations will now be the subject of separate legal proceedings in the employment tribunal against Fife Health Board,” Ms Gribbon said.
Despite an internal NHS Fife investigation being understood to have heard from a witness which contradicts Dr Upton’s version of events in relation to one of the patient safety incidents, these are still to be considered as a possible cause of severe disciplinary action.
An internal report is said to have called for Ms Peggie to face a further allegation of “misgendering”, in addition to the changing room incident, because during the probe she is said to have referred to Dr Upton as a man to investigators.
Ms Peggie is believed to have been told by NHS Fife on the second day of her employment tribunal that potential outcomes from Friday’s hearing include sanctions up to and including dismissal from her job.
In 10 days of evidence heard over the past fortnight, a tribunal in Dundee was told that Ms Peggie had encountered Dr Upton, who she believes to be male, in female hospital changing rooms on two previous occasions before the Christmas Eve incident.
Ms Peggie said on the third she needed to use the changing rooms urgently due to heavy menstrual bleeding and felt intimidated and embarrassed to find Dr Upton there.
The nurse admitted she had called Dr Upton a male but denied she had provoked an angry confrontation or behaved like a “dog with a bone” when making her views known.
Meanwhile, Dr Upton claimed Ms Peggie had subjected them to sustained transphobic harassment, including raising the case of Isla Bryson, the Scottish rapist previously known as Adam Graham, who was temporarily housed in a female jail.
Dr Upton has denied seeking to “punish” Ms Peggie or end her career, as “revenge” for the Christmas Eve incident.
Ms Peggie has been told that her conduct hearing will take place at Victoria Hospital’s boardroom with Jillian Torrens, head of complex and critical care services, to ultimately decide her fate with the help of an HR officer and NHS Fife’s head of nursing.
Health board management intend to call Dr Upton as one of four witnesses, with Ms Peggie entitled to call her own.
Final written warning
The nurse has been told she could receive a final written warning, alternatives to dismissal or be fired.
Murdo Fraser, Scottish Tory MSP, said SNP ministers now had serious questions to answer about how the case had been handled.
It emerged on Sunday that Neil Gray, the SNP health secretary, was warned in 2024 that NHS Fife was failing to meet its legal obligations to provide single-sex facilities but apparently failed to act.
“It is beyond belief that this dedicated nurse who has given 30 years of service to the NHS is now potentially facing the sack,” Mr Fraser said.
“This sorry saga exposes the stark reality of the Sturgeon-era extremist trans agenda where those who speak out in defence of women and girls’ rights to access single-sex facilities are the ones who are wrongly punished.
“Sandie Peggie has been failed by NHS Fife as well as SNP ministers who have turned a blind eye to this issue and serious questions must be answered about the handling of this case.”
A member of NHS Fife’s equality and diversity team advised clinical nurse manager Esther Davidson, who will also be a witness in the conduct hearing, that Dr Upton had a right to use female changing rooms, after Ms Peggie raised concerns.
Ms Peggie was suspended following the Christmas Eve incident, despite an HR worker describing the move as “ludicrous”. The nurse, who works two nights per week, has since returned to work and is kept apart from Dr Upton.
The tribunal will reconvene in July.
A NHS Fife spokesman said: “NHS Fife is unable to comment on matters related to individual staff members for reasons of confidentiality.”
Extraordinary threat to sack gender critical nurse exposes flagrant breach of natural justice
By Michael Foran
In an explosive revelation, we have learnt that NHS Fife is holding an internal conduct hearing this week to determine whether or not Sandie Peggie committed alleged acts of harassment that NHS Fife have already argued she is guilty of in open court.
Ms Peggie, a nurse of 30 years, is suing Dr Beth Upton and NHS Fife for unlawful harassment and discrimination arising from a policy of allowing Dr Upton, who is male but identified as a woman, to use the female changing rooms. When Ms Peggie raised her discomfort over this with her managers, she was told that Dr Upton had a right to use the female-only changing rooms. This is not true as a matter of law and is directly in breach of the Workplace (Health, Safety, and Wellbeing) Regulations 1992.
The situation came to a head on Christmas Eve 2023 when Ms Peggie, having experienced a heavy menstrual flood, rushed to the female changing room to find Dr Upton present. At this point, Ms Peggie told Dr Upton of her discomfort, stressing that Upton had no right to use the female changing room because he was a man.
Shortly after this, Ms Peggie was suspended pending investigation into allegations of bullying and harassment against Dr Upton. Months later, Ms Peggie was informed that she was also being investigated for alleged incidents of threats to patient safety raised by Dr Upton. Ms Peggie denies these allegations and has argued that Dr Upton fabricated them to bolster the complaint about her.
Ms Peggie is suing Dr Upton for harassment and NHS Fife for unlawfully allowing Dr Upton to use the female changing room and for unlawfully discriminating against her in the course of the misconduct investigation.
It has now been revealed that NHS Fife is pushing forward with its internal disciplinary process. It cannot be underestimated how shocking this is from a legal perspective. If there is an ongoing disciplinary process, it would be a flagrant breach of natural justice and of Ms Peggie’s right to procedural fairness for NHS Fife to pre-judge that process. Yet despite officially having come to no conclusion as to allegations that Ms Peggie harassed Dr Upton, this is exactly what counsel for NHS Fife is arguing in defence of the lawsuit that Ms Peggie has brought.
Ms Peggie was already suing NHS Fife for, among other things, how the beginning of this internal investigation played out, as well as the significant delay leading to the process remaining unfinished more than a year on. It was entirely open for NHS Fife to defend against the claims brought by Ms Peggie without committing to the position that she is guilty of the very thing yet to be determined.
Prejudging a disciplinary process
But Jane Russell, counsel for both NHS Fife and Dr Upton, has argued both in written submissions and in open court that “the inconvenient truth here is that the only real harassment that has occurred in this case was perpetrated by (Ms Peggie) against (Dr Upton)”. That is the official legal position of NHS Fife, prejudging an ongoing disciplinary process.
It is unclear at this stage how this will all play out, but the allegations made by Dr Upton against Ms Peggie are serious. The allegation that Ms Peggie was so bigoted against Dr Upton that she walked out on vulnerable patients in need of care, if determined to be true, could result in Ms Peggie being fired, or even struck off the nursing register. The idea that NHS Fife could argue in open court that Ms Peggie is guilty of this, before completing the internal process, is extraordinary. This was not necessary to defend against the lawsuit that Ms Peggie brought.
Given the choice to frame the legal defence in this way, it is no surprise that NHS Fife now faces further litigation from Ms Peggie arising from what appears to be a clearly unlawful breach of the legal rules around natural justice and procedural fairness. The choice to defend the initial litigation by prejudging an ongoing disciplinary process is staggering.
Michael Foran is a lecturer in public law at the University of Glasgow
