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BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nNHS Fife is “in the grip of delusion” over gender self-identification, an employment tribunal has heard. <\/p>\n A lawyer for Sandie Peggie claimed this had led to “weird behaviour” in the health board’s case for suspending the nurse.<\/p>\n Ms Peggie objected to the presence of Dr Beth Upton, a transgender woman, in a female changing room at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.<\/p>\n This led to an encounter between the pair on Christmas Eve 2023<\/a> and afterwards Dr Upton complained about the nurse. Ms Peggie was suspended and took the health board and the doctor to a tribunal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n However, the health board’s lawyer said Ms Peggie had made her discrimination claim because she realised she had “not got away with bullying and harassment” of the medic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Naomi Cunningham KC, representing Ms Peggie, was speaking on the first of two days of closing submissions at the tribunal, which began in February.<\/p>\n The lawyer claimed NHS Fife’s behaviour following the suspension of Ms Peggie had been “morally repugnant” and that the health board’s case was filled with examples of “weird behaviour”.<\/p>\n She added: “There is one cause for all the bizarre behaviour \u2013 an organisation in the grip of delusion.” <\/p>\n The KC added that there was “a delusion deliberately fostered, and successfully propagated” regarding gender self-identification by a number of health boards.<\/p>\n Those comments were in reference to evidence earlier in the tribunal<\/a> from NHS Fife’s equality and human rights officer Isla Bumba. <\/p>\n Ms Bumba previously said there was a general consensus among health boards in Scotland and England about letting trans staff use facilities that aligned with their gender. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The lawyer added that the health board subjected Ms Peggie to a “full blown witch-hunt” and “shockingly spiteful character assassination” during the tribunal, which saw racist jokes from old text messages<\/a> read out.<\/p>\n Ms Cunningham said this was taking an isolated example from several years worth of messages sent by the nurse. <\/p>\n She also said trans women should be excluded from women-only spaces as they were “still men” both “legally and factually”.<\/p>\n She cited this year’s Supreme Court judgement<\/a> regarding the definition of a woman on multiple occasions during her argument and claimed that, prior to the ruling, it had “been made taboo to say that trans women are men”.<\/p>\n Jane Russell KC, representing the health board, later responded that the Supreme Court ruling also stated it was not disadvantaging or removing protections for trans people.<\/p>\n She also said that NHS Fife believed there was no coherent reason to exclude Dr Upton from the changing facilities. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ms Peggie claimed being made to share a changing room with Dr Upton amounted to unlawful harassment<\/a> under the Equality Act and took the health board to an employment tribunal.<\/p>\n The nurse had been suspended by NHS Fife in the aftermath of the Christmas Eve incident. <\/p>\n The health board previously called the case unnecessary and vexatious, while Ms Peggie was accused of waging a “vindictive campaign”<\/a> against Dr Upton.<\/p>\n Ms Russell said Ms Peggie and her legal team were “trying to fit a square peg into a round hole” by applying gender critical arguments to the case. <\/p>\n The lawyer said NHS Fife had still not received any further complaints regarding Dr Upton’s presence in the female changing rooms.<\/p>\n She also dismissed Ms Cunningham’s earlier claim that a “climate of fear” at the hospital stopped people from coming forward to raise concerns.<\/p>\n She said there was no evidence of this beyond Ms Peggie’s own claims and that Dr Upton’s life was being affected “by the prejudices of somebody else”.<\/p>\n Ms Russell added that Ms Peggie had “crossed a line” by deciding to “confront” the doctor on Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ms Peggie’s legal team also raised what it called “remaining mysteries” surrounding the health board’s decision to suspend the nurse, and the investigation that followed.<\/p>\n These centred around whether allegations of prior encounters between Dr Upton and Ms Peggie had placed patients at risk. <\/p>\n As the claims “swung in and out of view” throughout the process, Ms Cunningham described them as puzzling and bizarre in how they were handled by NHS Fife. <\/p>\n Ms Russell focused on the “gratuitous harm” she said Ms Peggie’s comments on Christmas Eve 2023 had caused Dr Upton, including misgendering the medic and a disputed comparison to the rapist Isla Bryson<\/a> – which the lawyer called “a slur”. <\/p>\n The final day of closing submissions takes place on Tuesday, and Judge Sandy Kemp said deliberations on the case will take place on 14 October for four days. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/bbcdotcom\/web\/20250828-055926-c20c0c03f5-2.28.1-2\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nTimeline of the Sandie Peggie tribunal<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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