Paramedic suspended after mocking patient for calling 999 over paper cut

A paramedic has been suspended after mocking patients online, including one who called for an ambulance over a paper cut.

Samuel Heenan made a string of social media posts criticising some of his 999 call outs, a disciplinary tribunal was told.

The NHS worker ridiculed one patient who called over ‘chest pains’ after playing a Nintendo Wii, and another who ‘could not decide if [they] are having a seizure or eating a sandwich’, the panel heard.

He teased another who dialled 999 after suffering from three weeks of ‘smelly poos’.

The tribunal was told Mr Heenan thought the posts were ‘humorous’ and ‘would raise morale’ among his colleagues.

But the panel found his behaviour ‘deplorable’ and has suspended him for a year.

Mr Heenan began working as a paramedic for the South East Coast ambulance service, which covers Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire, in 2014.

Two years later, bosses were told of a number of inappropriate Facebook posts Mr Heenan had made, the tribunal heard.

An investigation found Mr Heenan had posted or messaged inappropriately 14 times.

In one post, Mr Heenan wrote: ‘Firstly: a paper cut on your neck does not count as a stab.

‘Secondly: a paper cut on the neck does not justify an emergency ambulance.

‘Thirdly: How do you even get a paper cut on your neck?!’

In another, he wrote: ‘People ask me what I have achieved at work today so I inform them that I have been enforcing traffic law, scaring people driving using their phone and writing fake speeding tickets.

‘All in a day’s work for an undercover paramedic.’

In November 2018, Mr Heenan was investigated after student paramedic Melissa Wale complained about his behaviour during shifts, the panel heard.

Ms Wale told the panel he had made comments about ‘scroats’, called a patient a ‘pansy’ and said the job was a ‘pile of crap’ with Mr Heenan often having ‘little patience’ for less serious calls.

He also called the 111 NHS staff a ‘bunch of monkeys’ to a child’s mother, and asked her why she had not driven to A&E seeing as her car was in the drive, the panel heard.

Mr Heenan also allegedly said to a colleague ‘we should leave our lights and sirens on outside the house to embarrass the patients’ and called a patient a compulsive liar.

The complaints were investigated but Mr Heenan quit before any conclusion was reached.

The panel concluded: ‘The remainder of the allegation found proved is conduct that falls far short of what would have been proper in the circumstances and concluded that it amounts to misconduct.

‘[Mr Heenan] breached patient confidentiality, which encompasses the fundamental professional tenets of trust and integrity.

‘In addition, his comments and conduct when working with Ms Wale, particularly bearing in mind his role as her mentor, as well as his repeated Facebook posts were deeply inappropriate, disrespectful and unprofessional.

‘Mr Heenan’s conduct would be considered deplorable and is conduct which the panel found amounted to misconduct.’

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