A paramedic who fell asleep on a patient’s sofa and took both hands off the steering wheel of his ambulance has been struck off.
Jacob Bailey made rude comments about colleagues in a Facebook group chat, and shared confidential information about people in his care, an investigation by the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service revealed.
A total of 59,615 posts, comments and reactions were made on the group chat between November 2021 and April 2022, investigators found.
In November 2021, he sent a message to the group which said: “I’m falling asleep on this patient’s sofa,” the tribunal heard.
Another message from the same month said: “With a patient who won’t stop moaning in pain F***** hurry up,” followed by two laughing emojis.
The paramedic also shared confidential information in the group, including a picture of a patient’s defibrillator monitor, and the addresses of people he was responding to, the tribunal heard.
In reference to a colleague, Mr Bailey, who began working for the East of England Ambulance Service in 2019, said: “Go catheterise yourself,” the tribunal was told.
He was also found to have posted pictures of himself wearing his paramedic uniform while swearing at the camera, the tribunal heard.
The tribunal was told that on an unknown date, Mr Bailey removed both hands from the steering wheel of his ambulance for “approximately three seconds” when driving with a colleague.
“It is unknown if there was a patient in the ambulance at the time,” the tribunal concluded.
In May 2022, the paramedic was suspended as a result of the investigation.
He reported himself to the tribunal service, but initially made a reference to himself being a “whistle blower”.
“He subsequently stated that that reference was a misunderstanding,” the tribunal said.
Having admitted the allegations, the paramedic was voluntarily removed from the register.
