Telling staff doctor was trans ‘would violate confidentiality'

Telegraph

3 days ago

An NHS consultant did not tell staff a transgender doctor would be allowed to use a female changing room because it would violate 'confidentiality', a tribunal has heard.
Sandie Peggie was suspended after she complained about having to share a changing room with Dr Beth Upton at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on Christmas Eve 2023.
The nurse was placed on special leave after Dr Upton, a biological male who identifies as a woman, made an allegation of bullying and harassment, and cited concerns about 'patient care'.
Ms Peggie has lodged a claim against NHS Fife and Dr Upton, citing the Equality Act 2010, including sexual harassment; harassment related to a protected belief; indirect discrimination; and victimisation.
At an employment tribunal in Dundee on Tuesday, emergency department consultant Dr Maggie Currer was cross-examined by Ms Peggie's lawyer, Naomi Cunningham.
The consultant admitted that she did not advise staff that Dr Upton would be allowed to use female changing facilities as she 'did not think it was reasonable to violate someone's confidentiality'.
The consultant insisted this did not make it harder for staff to object about the medic's presence in the rooms.
She said: 'In hindsight I could have checked with medical staff whether or not they were going to be comfortable with Dr Upton using the female changing rooms.
'No concerns were raised with me at the time; there are other spaces which people can use to change.
'I'm still not sure that advertising Dr Upton's trans status would have been the right thing to do.'
Ms Cunningham said: 'Someone had to be the first to object, this was an environment where senior staff were insisting that trans women were women and only a bigot would deny that. Objecting is going to take real courage isn't it?'
Dr Currer disputed that such terminology – 'only a bigot would deny that' – was used.
Ms Cunningham put it to her that 'Dr Upton is quite simply biologically male'.
Dr Currer said: 'She's chromosomally male, as far as I'm aware.
'Although I've not examined Dr Upton, she's also, in terms of genitalia, male, but I have not examined her.'
Elsewhere during her cross-examination, Dr Currer admitted she had made an 'error' in writing an email to colleagues to tell that Ms Peggie had been referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council on January 5, 2023.
She accepted that doing so was 'likely' to damage someone's reputation 'in the eyes of their colleagues'.