By Stuart Eustice, Partner, Holly White, Associate

Paramedicine Board of Australia v Clark [2023] VCAT 1192 (26 October 2023)

A paramedic was reprimanded, disqualified from applying for re-registration for five years and prohibited from providing any health service of care to a person, including, without limitation, by way of first aid or in any aged care or disability care setting for five years after the Tribunal found he engaged in professional misconduct. The paramedic had failed to provide adequate clinical care to a patient in deciding to withhold resuscitation after she suffered cardiac arrest, failed to communicate effectively with his team members and provided false or misleading information to his team members. The paramedic had not renewed his registration in December 2020 and now works in an unrelated field. The Tribunal noted, ‘while mistakes can of course be made in the hectic and stressful situations that confront paramedics, often on a daily basis, [the paramedic’s] lack of self-awareness and professional humility meant that critical opportunities to remedy the situation were lost.’

Paramedicine Board of Australia v Pickard-Clark [2023] VCAT 1204 (25 October 2023)

A paramedic was reprimanded, had his registration suspended for 12 months and had education conditions imposed on his registration after the Tribunal found he had engaged in professional misconduct. The paramedic had falsified his registration certificate to improve his chances of securing work by holding himself out as being registered without conditions when he had supervision conditions on his registration. The Tribunal noted the falsification of his registration certificate was clearly a dishonest act which undermines the community’s trust in the profession.