999 nurse who dealt with complex cases suspended after sending ambulance to wrong address
A 999 call handler who sent an ambulance to the wrong address has been suspended for a year.
Peter Hammond also recorded that a patient had no pain despite them saying: “I’ve got pains all over my body.”
As a nurse clinical supervisor with South East Coast Ambulance Service, he was meant to deal with more complex 999 calls.
But he made a series of errors between January 2014 and April 2015 after saying he felt “like a fish out of water” in the role.
In May 2014 he did not take seriously a patient's history of pneumonia or vomiting from the night before.
While in March 2015 he ignored procedure when told a patient was "on her hands and knees, rocking due to the pain".
Hammond had received a verbal warning in September 2014 but his incompetence continued.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council heard Hammond, of Surrey, will retire next year aged 70.
The panel in Stratford, East London, found his fitness to practise was impaired by his lack of competence and issued a 12-month suspension.
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Panel chair Ian Luder said: "Given the numerous breaches of the codes and that the failures identified were wide-ranging... we concluded that Mr Hammond’s behaviour demonstrated that he lacked the standards of knowledge, skills and judgement required to practise without supervision."