HUBBARD: PARAMEDIC STRUCK OFF FOR CHATTING ON PHONE DURING EMERGENCY CALL
A paramedic has been struck off after she chatted to her daughter on the phone during an emergency call to a mentally ill woman.
The 57-year-old patient had a fractured hip, but Lisa Hubbard acted as if she was wasting her time and accused her of pretending to be in pain.
The woman was left sobbing as Hubbard insisted she was not in discomfort as the patient was led from Southampton flat.
Hubbard accused the patient of throwing herself to the floor when she stumbled, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.
Panel chair Gillian Fleming said: ‘This case is very serious.
‘The nature of the facts found proved and the misconduct found relate to personal behaviour towards a patient and a colleague that may have resulted in a very poor clinical outcome for the patient.
‘It is, and remains, unacceptable for a paramedic to engage in overbearing and unsafe behaviour towards a patient and towards a colleague.
‘This is a case of profoundly unacceptable behaviour by a senior paramedic towards a patient in an emergency situation, in which, in the panel’s opinion, Ms Hubbard belittled the patient.’
Hubbard had previously received two caution orders from the HCP for ‘remarkably similar’ incidents in 2006 and 2007.
Ms Fleming said Hubbard’s record showed ‘persistent failures in the past to successfully address her misconduct.’
Fleur Frost, the ambulance technician working with Hubbard said she gave the impression the patient was wasting their time.
‘As we were helping the lady walk out of her flat Lisa was on the phone to her daughter.
‘She was saying she is fine, she is walking out of the flat, she has no pain whatsoever, which aggravated the patient.
‘The patient stopped and she looked at me and was crying again and she said ”I’m not making this up, you’ve got believe me, I am in pain.”
The patient fell just after they left the flat.
She said:’Lisa turned around when she heard the lady make a noise and she said what have you gone and thrown yourself down there for?
‘This was about 3 or 4 in the morning, in a built up area and people were asleep.
‘Someone leaned out of the next door window and asked what all the commotion was.
‘Lisa replied she’s fine, she just phoned us up at four in the morning.’
Ms Frost told the panel a row broke out between Hubbard and the patient over whether she had taken her medication.
Ms Frost continued: ‘There was a suggestion that the patient wasn’t being truthful about the medication she had taken.
‘It was quite an accusational comment and obviously upset the lady. There were numerous times when she was under our care when she was crying.
‘An argument ensued where the patient threw her medication on the bed and waved her walking stick over her head.
‘I remember thinking I was going to get hit. She wasn’t angry with me, but she was really upset.
‘She kept being asked about her mental health issues but she was in pain, and she needed help for that, and I believed that’s what we were there to do.’
Ms Frost, who was a student at the time of the incident, said Hubbard told her not to carry out checks on the patient on their way to hospital and decided to take the patient’s medication to hospital, despite Hubbard telling her not to.
When the patient arrived at Southampton General Hospital, it was found she had a fractured hip.
An emotional Ms Frost told the panel: ‘She said she had pain in her back, but there was nothing to suggest what we know now, that she had a fractured hip.’
An investigation was launched after the patient’s son complained about her treatment
All but two of the charges against Hubbard were found proved.
