A PARAMEDIC, who dishonestly obtained drugs for her own use, has been struck off from working in the health service.

Tracey Angel, who worked for the East of England Ambulance Service for 11 years, was dismissed by her employers last year after it was found that she had been taking morphine for personal use whilst working for the NHS trust.

A conduct and competence committee of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) struck the medic off their register following a hearing last week, which she did not attend.

A panel heard that the paramedic obtained approximately 167 vials of morphine sulphate, 1670mg in total, over a period of five months in 2011, which she self-administered. In order to hide her misuse, she intentionally damaged and falsified her controlled drugs record, using fictitious names for patients to whom she had supposedly administered morphine.

The HCPC panel also heard that she attended work in uniform on her days off in order to obtain morphine. As a result she received a police caution on April 19 2012 at Norwich Police Station for making a false representation.

The paramedic was dismissed from the East of England Ambulance Service following a disciplinary hearing.

Brian Wroe, who was chairman of the conduct hearing, said: “This was not an isolated incident. The registrant was involved in a course of conduct which took place over a number of months and the panel has found a significant element of dishonesty.”

“While the panel has had sight of some information from the registrant in the course of the trust disciplinary proceedings in which the registrant indicates a level of insight and remorse and refers to her difficult personal circumstances, there is no evidence before the panel to support any progress the registrant has made in dealing with her issues and no information to satisfy the panel that the registrant has remedied her shortcomings. The panel can not therefore be satisfied that there is no risk of repetition.”

The panel decided to strike her from the register with an interim suspension order in place to cover an appeal period.