Hero Midlothian paramedic tells of depression in unfair dismissal case

AN AWARD-WINNING paramedic has told of her struggles in finding a new job since being fired for gross misconduct.

Tracylee Armit , 43, from Mayfield, is suing the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) for unfair dismissal at Edinburgh Employment Tribunal.

A disciplinary panel at SAS concluded Ms Armit had failed to call back to check on the condition of patients and falsified phone records but she blames IT faults and glitches.

“Once I was dismissed, I made quite a few attempts but unfortunately due to the information provided and the investigation, obtaining work as a paramedic was highly unlikely,” said Ms Armit.

Representing herself at the hearing, she added: “It puts people off when they see you’ve been dismissed for gross misconduct.”

She also told the hearing yesterday her health had deteriorated since her sacking last March and she suffered depression.

The tribunal heard previously that Ms Armit’s former role as a clinical advisor included triaging lower priority, or yellow, calls.

This meant phoning back a caller to check on the patient in case their condition had deteriorated and they needed to be bumped up the queue for an ambulance.

The court heard that an initial allegation against Mr Armit surfaced in 2018 after the police requested recordings of a call relating to a potential attempted murder.

Although a copy of the original call was found and handed over, there was no record of three follow-up calls.

Ms Armit was identified as the clinical advisor involved and a wider investigation launched including analysing historical calls.

These revealed a higher proportion of calls handled by Ms Armit ended with her unable to triage and a lower number in an ambulance responding than for clinical advisors overall.

But Mr Armit yesterday questioned the appeal process saying: “I don’t believe that they took into account the problems I had obtaining information, obtaining expert witnesses.”

Ms Armit was cross-examined by SAS lawyer Greg Fletcher as to why there was no record of a call on the automated call recording software yet her own log registered one.

“I put it to you, you didn’t call back, you just lifted that information from the previous call,” quizzed Mr Fletcher. Ms Armit replied: “I did, if it’s in the C3 [clinical advisor’s log] I absolutely did.”

Ms Armit received the police meritorious award in 2006 after lying down in the snow for an hour while saving the life of a woman who had fallen 50ft from a third-floor window.

Two years later she was credited with helping save a bus passenger’s life after he suffered a heart attack on the Royal Mile.

The tribunal continues.