Well, well, well. Scottish health board NHS Fife has admitted to the UK’s equalities watchdog that it was in breach of the law when it allowed a trans doctor to use a single-sex changing room without first doing an equality impact assessment. Now NHS Fife has been ordered by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to ‘carry one out immediately’. Yet given the watchdog first contacted the health board in, um, February to remind bosses of their obligations to ‘assess and review’ new policies around single-sex spaces – which NHS Fife failed to do – Mr S hasn’t much faith about the health board getting its act together…
The revelation comes as the Sandie Peggie v NHS Fife tribunal rumbles on, resuming in July after being adjourned at the start of the year. Peggie is suing the health board after she was suspended in January 2024 after complaining about sharing a changing room with transgender medic Dr Beth Upton. NHS Fife has been under increasing scrutiny about its actions over the whole palaver. In January, Peggie’s legal team had asked whether an equality impact assessment was undertaken before Dr Upton was allowed to use the female changing room – to which the health board replied ‘no’. The reminder from the EHRC to the health board regarding a review of single-sex space policies followed the first two weeks of the employment tribunal in February. Bizarrely, NHS Fife did not respond to the EHRC letter – prompting the watchdog to send another, a month later. And now, six months after the tribunal began, the health board has agreed to carry out an equality impact assessment – to be published by, er, 30 September.
Some months before the case resumed, the Supreme Court backed the biological definition of a woman in a landmark ruling. Just as the tribunal started again in July, Sandie Pegg’s lawyer announced that the nurse had been cleared of all gross misconduct allegations. And, rather interestingly, NHS Fife has come under increasing scrutiny throughout: Scotland’s information commissioner ruled that the health board had failed to comply with Freedom of Information requests regarding the cost of the case – before it emerged that NHS Fife had spent a staggering £220,000 defending itself thus far. It’s had quite the number of twists and turns – and the drama doesn’t look to be subsiding anytime soon. Stay tuned…
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