The whistleblower at the centre of allegations that the North East Ambulance Service had "covered up" concerns about patient care in a series of tragic cases has been told he will be dismissed in four weeks' time.
Paul Calvert of Peterlee, a former police officer, worked in the North East Ambulance Service's (NEAS) coroners and claims team. More than three years ago, he raised concerns that the service was not sharing information with coroners in the way it should have been. In response, he said his worries and those of colleagues were ignored - and he has claimed harassment and bullying followed.
Now, after months in "limbo", he has been told his employment will be terminated. This follows a meeting at which he says he was unable to attend on the advice of his GP due to mental ill health, which he claims is a direct result of whistleblowing. He does have the right to appeal.
Paul has spoken of being "continually victimised" since speaking up about shortcomings. Other members of NEAS staff have also taken time off sick or left entirely as a result, he says.
An NEAS spokesperson said: "It is important to us that our staff can speak up to highlight concerns" and added that they had tried to support Paul back to work but were "unable to find a path for his return".
Paul, who lives in Peterlee, has also claimed that as late as 2021 he was highlighting errors in documentation and had seen no evidence of improvements to NEAS' process when it came to interacting with coroners' offices. He and other whistleblowers had previously highlighted a number of cases in which it did not appear that NEAS had released information in a timely manner to coroners' courts.
These included the cases which ended in the deaths of Quinn Evie Milburn Beadle and Peter Coates - both were subject to an investigation by independent firm AuditOne. NEAS has accepted "historic failings", but maintains it has dealt with these issues.
NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care announced a review of the allegations and NEAS' conduct led by former hospital chief executive Dame Marianne Griffiths. Paul - and the family of Quinn Evie - have expressed concerns about the independence of this review and its terms. It is currently yet to report findings.
Now, Paul has been told, days before Christmas, that he will be jobless in a month's time. He said that while the reason cited for this is that "there has been an irreconcilable breakdown in the employment relationship and an irretrievable loss of trust and confidence between both parties", that this has come as a result of his whistleblowing.
He said: "As suspected they have used some other substantive reason as their rationale. This is a tactic used to dismiss whistleblowers when no other reason exists to terminate their employment. I have been continually victimised to the point I am now suffering mental ill health and to further add to this, five days before Christmas, they have served me my notice. Leaving me in financial detriment."
He said he was advised not to attend a meeting to discuss the termination of his employment held on December 12. This went ahead without him. He has since received a letter from NEAS' director of finance and digital Taryn Lake confirming the termination of his employment at the conclusion of four weeks' notice.
Paul said he was concerned about the implications of this. He said: "They've used the reason of breakdown of relationship. That's absolutely not been my fault. Completely to the contrary. It's always the way with whistleblowers - the bottom line is there's very little right to recourse, unless you have money. You need money for justice.
"I wouldn't care if it was the case I had done anything wrong - but I don't believe I have done anything wrong. But in four weeks' time I won't have a job as a result of making disclosures in the public interest. That's a bit hard to swallow. What kind of message does it send out?"
In the case of Shildon teenager Quinn-Evie, who died in December 2018, investigators found that the first paramedic to respond did not attempt "full advanced life support" before declaring her death. At the time, paramedics and police who were on the scene raised concerns about this - and an internal investigation took place.
However the coroner presiding over her inquest was not at the time informed that an investigation had been undertaken. In Mr Coates' case there were delays in getting care to him, with one ambulance being unable to attend to him due to issues opening electronic gates and a second had stopped to refuel. Mr Coates, who was bedbound and reliant on oxygen, had called for an ambulance as a power cut had seen his oxygen machine fail.
Mr Coates was dead by the time the ambulance arrived - 34 minutes after the first one had been dispatched. AuditOne found that a statement was "deemed unnecessary to disclose" to the coroner "despite the statement covering the circumstances in which the delay had occurred".
The AuditOne report found that, as of June 2020, "the Trust is still not proactively disclosing information and / or documents when appropriate". The investigators also found some "lengthy delays" in the process at this time. NEAS accepted there had been issues in the past and that it had previously "let down" families concerned, but maintains these do not persist.
Paul said he was seeking out legal advice as to his options.
In response, a spokesperson for NEAS said: "After being absent for the past 17 months, Paul says there are no circumstances in which he could return to work. The Trust has therefore accepted, despite our efforts to support him, that we are unable to find a path for his return and have reluctantly decided to terminate his employment.
"We remain grateful to him for raising his concerns about the coronial processes back in 2019/20. We have acknowledged that we let down those families involved and have acted to put right those systems and processes.
"It is important to us that our staff can speak up to highlight concerns and we have doubled the investment available for Freedom to Speak Up guardians across the Trust so that staff feel confident that their concerns will be heard and appropriately actioned.”
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