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UK Paramedic Preferred a Concert When the Patient was Dying

by Gopalan on Oct 3 2008 11:00 AM

A woman paramedic of UK is facing disciplinary proceedings for refusing to attend to a dying patient as she was in a hurry to go to a concert.

Claire Lomas, 31, had arranged to swap places with a colleague before her shift ended when she was called to treat a 77-year-old who had fallen from his bicycle.

The Health Professions Council hearing was told that Lomas drove the patient to Keswick Ambulance Station to hand over her duties, rather than going directly to hospital.

She is also said to have allowed a trainee technician to treat the man, who died a day later.

She is alleged to have arranged the unauthorised handover so she could go to the concert on September 9, 2006.

The court heard she arrived at the accident scene at 6.41pm.

Julie Norris, for the Council, said Lomas failed to assess the man's condition, despite bleeding from his ear which 'formed a river of blood which needed to be stepped over'.

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'Rather than Miss Lomas being the driver she ought to have stepped in and been the attendant at the scene,' the panel heard.

Ms Norris suggested the patient's clinical notes were 'woeful' and accused Miss Lomas of not ensuring they were properly and accurately completed.

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'It is not a defence to say "I was not there" because it is the council's case that Miss Lomas ought to have been there until the end.'

The hearing, expected to last two days, continues.

Lomas, of Penrith, Cumbria, has already been dismissed from her job.

If the charges against her are proven, she could be struck off from the paramedics register itself.

Source-Medindia
GPL/SK


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