A transgender doctor who left Scotland for a new role at a sun-drenched Australian coastal hospital following a high-profile tribunal has become embroiled in another dispute over gender and patient care.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday understands that Dr Beth Upton, who now uses the name Lis, has been linked to an alleged incident at a New South Wales hospital in which a woman reportedly declined treatment from the doctor, who was born male.
The woman’s family reportedly feared she could be ‘bullied’ into accepting the 6ft doctor as female, and her husband is said to have remained at her bedside. Under Australia’s self-identification laws, transgender doctors are not legally or professionally required to disclose their gender history or trans status to patients.
During an employment tribunal in Dundee last year, brought by NHS Fife nurse Sandie Peggie, Dr Upton denied being male, described biological sex as a ‘nebulous dog whistle’ and said the doctor would treat a woman who requested a female doctor.
The 31-year-old began working in the emergency department at Port Macquarie Base Hospital in April, four months after leaving the NHS.
The alleged incident is understood to have involved a middle-aged woman who became concerned after recognising the doctor as male and raising the issue. Other members of staff then reportedly became involved.
A friend claimed: ‘Her husband stayed the whole time she was in to make sure they didn’t bully her into accepting treatment.’
Australian women’s rights campaigners have called for a government investigation. They had previously raised concerns after the country’s health regulator recorded Upton’s sex as female.
Dr Beth Upton moved to Australia after the employment tribunal involving Sandie Peggie ended
Nurse Sandie Peggie
Port Macquarie Base Hospital, New South Wales, Australia
Rachael Wong, chief executive of Women’s Forum Australia, said: ‘A woman in hospital should not have to defend her boundaries from the very people entrusted with her care.
‘The New South Wales health minister must urgently investigate why a vulnerable woman seeking emergency care felt she needed her husband’s protection to ensure her request to be treated by a female doctor was respected.
‘The minister and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority [AHPRA] must also explain what assessment was made of Upton’s assertion, given under oath, that the doctor would treat women who had specifically requested a female doctor. They must also clarify what safeguards were in place to protect the dignity, wellbeing and consent of female patients.
‘In April, we warned that AHPRA’s registration of Upton as a female doctor raised serious questions about whether women’s boundaries and consent would be respected in Australian hospitals. This allegation brings those concerns into sharp focus.’
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Sall Grover, a Queensland businesswoman who lost a legal case after refusing to allow a man who identifies as a woman to use her female-only social media platform, said: ‘A doctor who refuses to acknowledge the reality of biological sex is putting themselves and their patients in a precarious position.
‘If it is being done to validate the doctor’s own identity, it makes the situation even more sinister.’
One hospital staff member said: ‘It should now be very clear why Dr Upton wanted to come to work in Australia. Our laws, as they stand, mean the doctor is regarded as a woman here.
‘But it was always only a matter of time before an allegation like this was made.’
Other colleagues at the 228-bed hospital have welcomed the transgender doctor. One nurse said: ‘Lis is lovely. Everyone loves her.’ The Dundee University medical graduate is living in the middle-class coastal community, where the average property costs about $900,000 (£473,000).
The doctor, along with wife Zoe, has moved into a rented home in the resort, which has a burgeoning LGBTQIA+ scene.
Dr Upton, a field hockey goalkeeper, has also landed a second job umpiring games for Port Macquarie Hastings Hockey Association, earning around $50 a match.
The medic was given help by the hospital to secure a visa after landing the $110,000-a-year post.
Meanwhile, Mrs Peggie, 56, faces losing her income in three months.
She has been off sick as she continues an appeal against NHS Fife following her partial tribunal win. It is understood that her sick pay will run out in January.
The tribunal ruled the health board, which spent around £220,000 defending both Upton and itself, had harassed Mrs Peggie by allowing the trans doctor to use the female-only changing room at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital.
Unlike UK law, clarified by the Supreme Court in the For Women Scotland ruling last year, Australia’s anti-discrimination legislation allows biological men who identify as women into female-only spaces.
The health authority which oversees Port Macquarie Base Hospital said: ‘Mid Northern Coast Local Health District does not comment on matters relating to individual staff members.’
Mrs Peggie’s lawyer, Margaret Gribbon, also declined to comment.