Booze-cruise medic teaching 999 crews
A SHAMED former health chief is heading up a private firm that provides driver training courses for the NHS. Paul Leaman, 59, used an ambulance to go to France on a booze cruise while he was a paramedic at Essex Ambulance Service, now part of East of England Ambulance Service Trust. And after moving into management he gave business to a pal’s firm instead of sticking to competitive tendering processes. Watchdog the Health Professions Council found him guilty of serious misconduct in 2009 and he was suspended for a year.
Mr Leaman retired in October 2014 and became chairman of Emergency Services Training and Review, or Emstar, two months later. The firm had inked a framework agreement with EEAST in July 2014 and won the driver training deal last month.
An i nsider s aid: “People will be surprised to learn a senior officer disciplined for serious misconduct is now using his NHS contacts to bid for lucrative contracts.”
But Mr Leaman, of Chelmsford, Essex, said he never had any “decision-making authority or input” into external training while at EEAST. He added: “Emstar, along with other training providers, responded to a tender opportunity EEAST put out earlier this year.”
EEAST said: “The trust contracts with a range of providers for training and education, including Emstar. All such contracts are procured following open processes.”
The Sunday People revealed last week that EEAST spent £2million on private ambulances between last July and January due to chronic staff shortages.