NHS bosses ‘still on the hook' despite nurse Sandie Peggie's ‘racist' remarks, says Anas Sarwar
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NHS bosses are still in the firing line over their trans policy even if a nurse at the centre of a tribunal row did make 'racist' remarks, Anas Sarwar said.
The Scottish Labour leader said 'horrific' remarks attributed to nurse Sandie Peggie about ethnic minorities does not detract from public bodies' duty to keep biological males out of female changing rooms.
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Nurse Sandie Peggie was accused of making highly racist remarks
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She was suspended by NHS Fife for challenging trans Dr Beth Upton (pictured) about using the women's changing room
Credit: Alamy
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Anas Sarwar said Ms Peggie's remarks should not let NHS Fife off the hook
Credit: Les Gallagher
Ms Peggie has denied claims from two colleagues that she joked about posting bacon through the letterbox of a local mosque, insisting the remark came from a paramedic on the ward.
Ms Peggie admitted she had a fear of the mosque being built in Kirkcaldy due to her having concerns about Sharia Law being introduced in the UK.
She said did not dislike all Muslims and that her beliefs did not mean she would ever treat patients differently.
The nurse, who worked for 30 years with NHS Fife, also said a number of racist jokes in a WhatsApp chat regarding flooding in Pakistan that killed nearly 2,000 people in 2022 was humour, intended to try and shock people.
The nurse said she had used derogatory terms to describe people from Pakistan and China because these were common terms when she was growing up.
She said people of those ethnicities that she knew were not offended when the terms had been used.
MSP Mr Sarwar said: 'Those comments, if they are as attributed, are completely and utterly unacceptable.
'But we have also got to be really careful that we don't distract from the big issues that matter.
'Just because we might find these comments attributed horrific doesn't mean health boards and the Scottish Government should not comply with the Equality Act and protect single sex spaces based on biological sex.
'We can do that while also building a society that is free of prejudice of any kind, including racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, antisemitism and Islamophobia.'
NATS health secretary Neil Gray today failed to back nurse Sandie Peggie amid a row over single-sex space
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