Hundreds of ambulance workers were employed without checks on their criminal records

  • North East Ambulance NHS Foundation failed to check 388 workers
  • Potential sex offenders could have been working with vulnerable
  • 14 workers suspended after their criminal backgrounds were discovered
  • But another 17 left without ever being subjected to criminal checks

By Mia De Graaf

PUBLISHED: 12:40 EST, 16 March 2014 | UPDATED: 12:59 EST, 16 March 2014


Blunder: At least 14 North East Ambulance employees have been found to have criminal convictions (file image)

Blunder: At least 14 North East Ambulance employees have been found to have criminal convictions (file image)

Nearly 400 ambulance workers were employed without being screened for criminal convictions, it has emerged.

An urgent review has been launched into the blunder at North East Ambulance Service, which could mean paedophiles and sex offenders were in contact with vulnerable adults and children.

So far, 14 people have been suspended from front line duties after they were found to have a criminal record.

A further 17 had already left without ever having been examined.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has carried out a review of the trust. Its findings will be published next month.

David Atkinson, regional organiser for Unison's North East Ambulance Service branch, accused the trust of risking public safety and claimed those responsible must be held to account.

He said: 'We are having paramedics all the time being forced to go to Health and Care Professions Council hearings to do with patient safety.

'If it is the rule for them it should be the same for senior management.

'The Trust's board should be asking who has made this decision and who is responsible.'

Malcolm Bower-Brown, the CQC's regional director for the north, said: 'The Trust provided us with a report setting out their plans to undertake the required employment checks for all those staff where DBS checks had not previously been sought, together with the immediate and longer term actions they would be taking to ensure similar issues do not reoccur.

 

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'We have been advised by the Trust that all outstanding checks will be undertaken by April 2014.

'We carried out an inspection of the Trust in early February and in the light of these serious issues, looked closely at recruitment policies and procedures as part of our inspection.

'We will be publishing our report shortly which will detail the findings of our inspection together with any regulatory action we intend to take.'

Almost 400 workers were not checked, prompting an urgent review by the Care Quality Commission

Almost 400 workers were not checked, prompting an urgent review by the Care Quality Commission

North East Ambulance Service said 268 members of the 388 staff no longer needed one.

Of the remaining 120, 42 were found to have a DBS check and 17 had either left or did not need one.

But bosses decided to check all 388 which led to 14 being flagged up as having committed criminal offences.

They were removed from front line duties but were later allowed back to work.

The Trust is now carrying out voluntary checks on hundreds more staff and has launched an investigation.

A spokesman said: 'All staff are required to inform us, and their registration body if applicable, when an offence is committed.

'Any risk to patient safety is reduced because the majority of our staff work with a partner and those staff without a DBS check were allocated to work on a double crew until their check was confirmed.

'An investigation into why this backlog of checks occurred is being undertaken and we are co-operating with our regulators to ensure this is resolved as quickly as possible.'

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How many NHS managers have lost their jobs through failing to check the records of these people.

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This is one of the results of a privatised ambulance service. Thanks for that Thatcher!

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And of course anyone arriving I the UK won't have any CRB record to check - regardless of they did in their own country?

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If it's only a minor crime, people should be allowed to move on and make better choices with the rest of their lives. A lot of people wouldn't have the stomach for paramedic work anyway, they're a gift.

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Why pick on the ambulance service..? There are plenty of other organisations that are in the same boat...

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I suppose it depends on the 'crime'....imagine if any politician who had committed a crime were thrown out of parliament, we'd have no MP's.

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Consequences? Who hired them and failed to check? Are they now job seekers after being fired for gross incompetence.

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Surprised? Thought not.

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The problem is a lot of NHS ambulance trusts rely on private ambulance companies,and it is their staff that is the problem. If NHS ambulance services were properly funded they would not have to rely on private companies so much.

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THERE WAS A TIME IF A PERSON HAD A CRIMINAL RECORD AN EMPLOYER COULD SAY NO TO EMPLOYING THE PERSON, NOW UNLESS IT"S MURDER OR ARMED ROBBERY THEY DON"T HAVE TO DECLARE ANYTHING, AND NOW SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS IF THEY HAD TO DECLARE IT THERE WOULD BE MILLIONS UNEMPLOYED. THE PERMITTED U.K. DECLINE OVER THE DECADES.

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