Paramedic suspended for mocking patients online denied bid to return to work
A paramedic who was suspended for mocking patients online has been reprimanded again after a panel found he failed to ‘learn from his behaviour’.
Samuel Heenan was suspended for 12 months last year for misconduct over a series of workplace failings as well as more than a dozen Facebook posts about his job which were found to be ‘deeply inappropriate, disrespectful and unprofessional’.
They included a comment ridiculing one 999 caller who couldn’t tell if someone was ‘having a seizure or eating a sandwich’.
In one post, he wrote: ‘Got a call to a patient who was complaining of a 3 week history of “having smelly poos”. I’m struggling to see the emergency here as many of us have experienced a lifetime of this issue.’
In another post, the NHS worker 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?!’
None of the posts identified the patients.
Some were not aimed at them but were nonetheless found to be ‘inappropriate’, such as one image captioned: ‘I think it’s about time we stopped taking emergency(ish) calls now as there are no ambulances to send and no beds in A and E.’
The tribunal was told Mr Heenan thought the posts were ‘humorous’ and ‘would raise morale’ among his colleagues.
But the panel also heard complaints from a student paramedic who worked on placement with Mr Heenan and said he showed ‘little patience’ for less serious call-outs.
She said he referred to one patient as a ‘pansy’ after leaving an incident and that, while driving to another patient, he commented: ‘I bet they’re a scrote, living here’.
On one call-out, he ‘asked the patient’s mother if it was their car in the drive and why they had not driven to A&E’, the panel was told.
Mr Heenan quit his job at the South East Coast ambulance service before the panel came to any conclusion but was nonetheless suspended from practising as a paramedic.
When his suspension period ended on Thursday he argued he should have his licence back at a The Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service hearing.
He said: ‘I have learnt a lot from my previous mistakes and have worked hard to develop myself and my situational awareness.”
The hearing was told he ‘accepts full responsibility for his actions and he failed to see them from the perspective of others at the time’, adding that he ‘did not intend to be offensive’.
But the panel rejected his argument, stating: ‘Whilst he has completed some limited [training] to maintain his clinical skills, there was nothing before the panel to demonstrate that he has undertaken any learning around the specific areas of misconduct found proved.
‘The Panel has decided to extend the current suspension order for a further six months.
‘This is required to reflect the serious misconduct and give him an opportunity to further develop his insight and remediation.’
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