The Sandie Peggie case against NHS Fife is only getting stranger. The tribunal resumed on Wednesday morning, after first being heard in February after nurse Peggie lodged a complaint of harassment related to a protected belief under the 2010 Equality Act after being suspended for complaining about sharing a changing room with a transgender doctor. Just weeks after the case adjourned, the Supreme Court backed the biological definition of a woman – and just this week Peggie’s lawyer announced NHS Fife had cleared Peggie of all gross misconduct allegations. Now those present have witnessed another baffling twist –the senior diversity officer who gave advice that allowed a transgender medic into a women’s changing room has claimed that she, er, doesn’t know her own sex. You couldn’t make it up…
The equalities and human rights lead at NHS Fife, Isla Bumba told the tribunal that while she was able to ‘hazard a guess I would be female’, she insisted ‘no one knows’ their chromosomes or hormonal composition unless they had undergone medical testing. Er, right. Bumba went on to say that she had given ‘generalised’ advice in 2023 that led to Dr Beth Upton, a transwoman, being allowed to access female changing facilities at the Kirkcaldy hospital where Peggie worked. The long-time nurse confronted Dr Upton the third time she came across the medic in the changing room, on Christmas Eve in 2023 – before being suspended after Upton reported Peggie for a ‘hate incident’. Bumba added that while the health board did not have a formal policy on trans changing rooms, it had informally used national guidelines – prompting claims the Scottish health service had commenced a ‘secret’ trans policy.
NHS Fife has come under increasing scrutiny throughout this case, with Scotland’s information commissioner ruling that the health board had failed to comply with Freedom of Information requests regarding the cost of the case. It has since been revealed that NHS Fife has spent a whopping £220,000 defending itself thus far. First Minister John Swinney has said he has confidence in the health board – but since nurse Peggie was acquitted in the internal disciplinary process, health service bosses have come under pressure to concede the case. Will they now bow out? Watch this space…
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