Exclusive: Ambulance technician who breached protocol is struck-off paramedic

Situation "not ideal," concedes South Central Ambulance Service

AN AMBULANCE technician who wrongly ordered colleagues to stop resuscitating an overdose victim is a struck-off paramedic.

And the clinicial director of a private ambulance firm used by South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS)has said the situation was “not unusual.”

In 2008 the Health Professions Council's disciplinary panel found Edwin Cotton, who works for a private firm used by SCAS guilty of misconduct.

It ruled he wrongly administered a drug to unnecessarily “knock out” a patient when he worked in the Midlands and ruled: “His integrity is compromised and the public would not be able to have the confidence in him it could expect.... the misconduct allegation is well founded.”

However Mr Cotton resurfaced as an ambulance technician for the private company Emergency Response Services (ERS), used by SCAS to provide extra staff.

And on July 20 Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford heard how Mr Cotton wrongly ordered two care assistants to stop their efforts to revive a drug overdose victim.

When Mr Cotton was twice pressed by Mr Bedford to say whether he had the authority to give the order, he eventually admitted: “No.”

He also failed to follow correct protocol by not rushing 24-year-old Steven Emberlin straight to hospital, the hearing was told.

The inquest heard that Mr Emberlin was visiting his friend Simon Randall in Dickens Walk, Newbury, on October 1 last year when he apparently dozed off and began turning blue.

SCAS emergency care assistants Andrew Evans and Adrian Sellers were first on the scene and began CPR.

Mr Evans told the hearing: “We tried for 20 minutes. Then Edwin Cotton arrived and said: ‘Can't you see he's dead?' I replied that he was still warm to the touch but Mr Cotton said: ‘Well, I'm calling it.'”

Mr Sellers said: “Mr Cotton just came into the room and said he was ‘calling it.' He didn't ask any questions; he didn't check the body; he didn't attempt intervention.”

When pressed by Mr Bedford, Mr Cotton admitted he was not authorised to give the order to cease CPR.

Operational manager for SCAS, paramedic Kirsten Willis, told the inquest: “I was very concerned and made a report. He was not authorised and I don't think you can make that decision, especially with a young man, until advanced life support has been tried. Crews without advanced life support capability should ‘load and go' as soon as possible. The protocols were not adhered to and they should have been.”

She said Mr Emberlin's condition may conceivably have been reversible at hospital and although she felt it was unlikely, added: “I think he deserved that chance.”

Post mortem tests revealed Mr Emberlin had drunk more than twice the legal alcohol limit for driving and had also taken heroin and cocaine.

Cause of death was given as the combined toxic effects of the above.

Mr Bedford returned a narrative verdict in which he related the above facts.

Meanwhile it was claimed this week that it was “not at all uncommon” for SCAS to re-employ struck-off paramedics as ambulance technicians or emergency care assistants.

ERS clinical director Mark Rattigan said: “Yes, we knew he was struck off as a paramedic but he is employed as an ambulance technician. This is not at all uncommon. We're happy for him to function at that level. There is far less responsibility but not much difference in pay.”

SCAS spokeswoman Ngozi Fakeye said the situation was “not ideal” but added: “The public needs a service and we try to plug the gaps as best we can.”

Miss Fakeye said companies such as ERS were used “while we recruit our own staff or to cover periods of extreme demand such as through the winter.