Murdo has said that NHS Fife should concentrate on providing adequate A&E services rather than “waste money” on legal costs for a controversial employment tribunal.
He was commenting following the release of the latest weekly data for waiting times at Fife’s A&E departments, which show that the figures for those waiting over four hours, over eight hours and over 12 hours all increased from the previous week.
The statistics, published by Public Health Scotland, show that the number of patients waiting at Fife’s A&E department for over four hours increased from 504 in the week ending February 16 to 526 in the week ending February 23. For those waiting over eight hours, the numbers increased from 135 to 180 in this period, and for those waiting over 12 hours, it increased from 39 to 42.
Commenting, Murdo said: “Many people will be aware of the Sandie Peggie employment tribunal case and will probably know that NHS Fife is refusing to say how much money it has spent on defending itself against claims of discrimination by nurse Sandie Peggie at the recent employment tribunal. One would imagine this will amount to a sizeable sum, and I’m sure many residents will agree with me in saying this appears to be money being wasted on that at a time when folk cannot access A&E services.”
Murdo continued: “Yet again, the A&E waiting time figures for NHS Fife are very poor and concerning. We keep hearing from First Minister John Swinney and Health Minister Neil Gray that they are trying to address issues in our health service but as we can see from this latest data, there isn’t any sign of that.
“These shocking figures also highlight how those patients who are most in need of help are not able to access treatment quickly. We can see that local services simply cannot meet demand because this SNP Government is squandering money on bureaucracy in the NHS rather than making sure it gets to frontline services.
“There is legitimate public interest in the costs to the taxpayer of defending the tribunal claim being made public.”
Ms Peggie was suspended by NHS Fife following a locker room incident with trans doctor Beth Upton on Christmas Eve in 2023. Ms Peggie claims NHS Fife breached the equality act and claims she was subjected to unlawful harassment because Dr Upton was allowed to use women’s facilities.
The health board is providing legal counsel to Dr Upton, who Ms Peggie is also suing.
