Paramedic high on laughing gas banned
A Staffordshire paramedic found on a stretcher high on laughing gas when she was supposed to be looking after a patient has been suspended from her profession for a year.
Janine Owen emptied the canisters in her ambulance and even inhaled when going to calls. Bosses at West Midlands Ambulance Service grew suspicious about the depleted stocks of nitrous oxide, Entonox, in May 2008.
They discovered she was responsible for the missing gas when they decided to mark her cylinders with a black cross.
She was also seen skulking off to the rear of ambulances where she would stay for some time, the Health Professions Council heard. Consumption of gas in her ambulance also did not tally with the emergency calls she attended.
Confronted with the evidence against her Owen admitted she had taken the gas. She admitted self-administering Entonox on numerous occasions between May and June 2008; responding to a 999 call while under the influence; failing to consider her actions could jeopardise the health and safety of colleagues and patients; and failing to comply with the trust's policy on medicines, which states: 'staff must not take medicines for personal use'.
She also admitted failing to tell the trust she was sick while on duty – as required by her terms of employment.
HPC chairman Derek Adrian-Harris said a 12-month suspension order was the only appropriate sanction in the circumstances.
He said: "Given the severity of the case a caution or conditions of practice order wouldn't adequately protect the public. She has shown insight into her misconduct and has an otherwise unblemished employment history."
He said that prior to the end of her suspension as a paramedic, her case would be reviewed by another HPC panel. And he said she would have to submit medical reports to the HPC detailing her problems with pain management.
