A Yorkshire Ambulance Service paramedic has been struck off after banter with call centre staff went too far.
Nigel Roberts was suspended for unprofessional behaviour when attending to a pregnant patient who worked at the Web Help UK call centre in Rotherham in March 2014.
Staff at the firm complained after being offended by his comments and behaviour towards the woman, who had just suffered a hypoglycaemic episode.
He insulted call centre workers telling them they were like “chickens in a coop” and made a comment about one woman’s breasts.
He said he wished managers at the ambulance service looked more like the staff at Web Help UK.
Mr Roberts also made derogatory comments about overseas call centres and the customer service at Vodafone, the main client of Web Help UK.
He also claimed businesses would soon be charged for calling out an ambulance.
He further refused to tell the patient his name when she asked and bragged about his hourly rate of pay.
The patient said she was “treated like a child” by Mr Roberts and could not wait to get away from him after he transported her to hospital.
She was so repulsed that she opted to leave A&E without treatment and walk 45 minutes home.
A disciplinary panel of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) ruled that he had brought the profession into disrepute.
Having been suspended last November the HCPC has now banned him from the profession for five years.
