Second medic caught on gas

A second paramedic has been caught high on laughing gas in her own West Midlands ambulance, it emerged today.

Janine Owen inhaled the gas when she was going to 999 calls and later claimed she was too ill to work and should be signed off sick, the Health Professions Council was told at a misconduct hearing.

It comes weeks after Lyndsay Pegg, of Penkridge, was suspended from working as a paramedic for a year for taking laughing gas at work.

Suspicions were aroused about Owen when stocks of the nitrous oxide gas, known as Entonox, were used up at a rapid rate in May and June last year.

She was seen heading off to ambulances where she would stay for some time and was once found lying on a stretcher by a colleague, it was said.

Bosses at West Midlands Ambulance Service decided to mark her cylinders with a black cross. Consumption of gas on her ambulance did not tally with the calls she attended.

Manager Sean Coleman said that on June 4 Owen was with colleague Linda Barker when called to an emergency near Stafford.

Mr Coleman said: "Linda went into the house while Janine stayed in the rear of the vehicle. Colleague Angela Stevenson asked her to get a carrier chair from the ambulance but after 10 minutes nothing happened.

"Ms Stevenson went out to the vehicle and opened a door. Janine was lying on a stretcher. Linda told her she wasn't feeling well."

During a disciplinary interview Owen, who was based at Lichfield, admitted she had taken nitrous oxide both before the call and while on the road.

She admits self-administering Entonox; 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.

She also admits failing to tell the trust she was sick on duty.

The hearing continues.

By Nick Pritchard