A senior Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) staff member has been suspended after a whistleblower claimed that he had instructed one of his 999 call handlers to leave their post to pick him and his family up from an airport.
It is also alleged that the call taker was told to use a service vehicle for the journey.
The ambulance boss concerned had apparently just returned to Glasgow Airport from a family holiday when he allegedly instructed the 999 call handler to pick him up, as reported by the Scottish Sun.
After a whistleblower raised the issue with a member of the Senior Management Team, the manager concerned – who ESN also understands is a ‘prominent’ Unite representative – was removed from duty.
A source told ESN that the Band 7 manager involved has been in his role as a Duty Manager for around three years.
It is claimed that the 999 call taker was away from their post for around two hours whilst they collected the manager and his family from the airport before they could resume their duties.
Once the SAS manager and their family had been picked up, it was claimed that they were taken back to the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) so that they could collect their private vehicle before continuing with their journey home.
The Scottish Sun reports that the manager had flown home shortly after midnight before contacting the 999 call taker.
SAS top bosses have refused to comment on the claims.
But sources have said that SAS staff are ‘outraged’ by the incident and claimed that the move put the public in danger by having one less person in the Emergency Operations Centre to take emergency calls.
A source told the paper:
“A dispatcher was told via text to take the service pool vehicle and go to Glasgow Airport
“He wanted them to collect him and his family and then return them to collect his car at the control centre.
“This removed a dispatcher whose job it is to allocate 999 calls to ambulances.
“This was on a night the centre was short-staffed and removed that dispatcher from their computer for over two hours.
“This put extreme pressure on the other dispatchers and put the public at risk.
“It’s a misuse of public money. It’s outrageous.”
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson said:
“We do not comment on individual members of staff, however any concerns raised are strictly managed in line with SAS policies.”
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Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Look no further than the USSR, the workers’ paradise. Special lanes were reserved for the big wigs, police halted traffic so that they were not inconvenienced by the lights and those roads were always kept swept of snow.
I am not in the least bit surprised that a senior left winger did not care about the people he serves.