A consultant who offered a transgender doctor support after a dispute with a nurse regarding use of the female hospital changing rooms said the issue had been raised previously, a tribunal heard.
Dr Elspeth Pitt, a consultant in emergency medicine, was at the end of her shift on Christmas Eve 2023 at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, when she encountered Dr Beth Upton in a state of “visible distress” following an incident with nurse Sandie Peggie.
Ms Peggie was suspended after she complained about having to share a changing room with Dr Upton at the hospital on Christmas Eve 2023.
She was placed on special leave and then suspended after Dr Upton made an allegation of bullying and harassment and cited concerns about “patient care”.
Ms Peggie has lodged a claim against Fife health board and Dr Upton, citing the Equality Act 2010, including sexual harassment; harassment related to a protected belief; indirect discrimination and victimisation.
On Friday, Dr Pitt told the tribunal she met Dr Upton in a corridor around midnight, and said the junior doctor “looked pale”.
She said they went into the wellbeing room, and a “sobbing” Dr Upton told her there had been “a very upsetting interaction”.
Dr Pitt said: “She was really upset, she felt very fearful and at that time had felt cornered.
“She had been at the end of her shift and in a changing room had a conversation with Sandie and it had become very unpleasant and painful for her.
“She said she felt as if she had been cornered and that the end of a shift was not a good time to have this conversation, but it escalated and she felt she couldn’t get away, and she just felt very upset by what had been said to her.”
The witness said Ms Peggie “felt that Dr Upton should not be in the changing room”, and Dr Pitt added: “I do remember some comments about likening the situation to something to do with convicted rapist… what I clearly remember is just feeling so very, very sad, because that must have been so hurtful a thing to hear.
“Dr Upton was really upset, I had to comfort her, she was crying so much.”
The consultant said she walked Dr Upton to the car, “as she was feeling quite threatened”, and then sent an email to the doctor’s line manager, Dr Kate Searle, and Ms Peggie’s line manager Esther Davidson, titled “catch up”, asking to speak the next week.
She also told the tribunal that during an “informal meeting” between consultants and senior nurses at some point between August and December 2023, a concern had been raised about Dr Upton using the female changing room by a senior nurse.
Dr Pitt said: “At one of those meetings before December, a member of senior nurses had said there had been a concern raised about Dr Upton using that changing room but that our understanding was that she was entitled to, that’s what we had been informed. We were not told of the specifics, that was to be aware that people had a concern.”
Ms Peggie’s junior counsel, Charlotte Elves, raised an email sent on December 29, 2023 from Dr Searle, which said “we all support her and condemn the actions of Sandie”.
The witness said it would have been sent to around 20 senior consultants, and described it as “information sharing”.
Dr Pitt said: “When I read ‘condemn the actions’ it was that we heard she had been verbally attacked. The way I would always think is anyone would condemn a behaviour that causes someone to feel unsafe or disrespected, that does not mean we condemn the person.”
She said Dr Upton’s sex was “just not something we talked about”, and added: “When Dr Upton started working with us we were told she was Dr Beth Upton… It didn’t come up in conversation.”
Asked about other actions she could have taken, Dr Pitt said: “I genuinely didn’t know how to respond. An incident happens, one reports it and there is an investigation, but it was very late at night, I was tired. I genuinely didn’t know what was the right thing to do.”
The consultant was asked why she did not engage with three email chains about the incident.
Ms Elves said: “What I’m going to suggest is you didn’t reply to any of those three threads as they were becoming increasingly partisan, condemnatory of Sandie Peggie, and you knew that was not appropriate.”
Dr Pitt said: “I don’t use email as a form of conversation.”
The tribunal continues.
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