London: Paramedic Dominic Colella guilty of misconduct after 'leaving patient to shop at M&S'

Former London paramedic Dominic Colella has been found guilty of misconduct after he abandoned patients in the back of an ambulance to get a hair cut and pick up shopping from Marks and Spencer.

Colella, who did not appear at a Health and Care Professions Council hearing into the incidents, made an 85-year-old man - who collapsed from severe blood poisoning - wait in the back of an ambulance for 20 minutes while the paramedic visited M&S to pick up bags of shopping.

A tribunal heard the stricken man's wife questioned Colella's colleague on why the ailing man had not been taken to hospital.

Just two weeks later when responding to another 999 emergency, this time after a patient sustained a major head injury, Colella decided to get his hair cut.

At a fitness to practice hearing, chairwomen Gillian Fleming said while his actions appeared to cause no direct harm to the patients, there was potential for "serious consequences".

"The registrant's actions may indicate an attitudinal problem which he appears to have taken no real steps to address," Fleming said. "There's no evidence to suggest his behaviour has changed."

Colella, who admitted the charges of abandoning his colleagues and patients, has since resigned from the London Ambulance Service.