Friday, May 16, 2014



British Paramedic who wrote abusive comments on Facebook  suspended from his job

A paramedic who wrote abusive comments on Facebook about an NHS campaigner, whose mother who died at Stafford Hospital, has been suspended.

Roy Guest, 51, was told he could not work for a year after posting ‘offensive’ remarks about whistle-blower Julie Bailey's late mother, Bella, who died while being cared for at the scandal-hit institution.

One of the many comments he posted on the social media page stated: ‘I hope you suffer a life threatening illness...’

Ms Bailey set up the campaign group Cure the NHS and has been widely credited for pushing politicians to hold a public inquiry into the failings.

The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) panel ruled that Guest should be suspended from the register for 12 months.  Panel chair Clair Bonnet said: ‘The panel concluded that his insight is limited. The registrant has not engaged with these proceedings at any stage.

‘The panel had no evidence before it of the registrant’s current attitude or whether he had taken any steps to remediate his misconduct.

SOURCE

He made no threats so should have been entitled to express his feelings.  But free speech is very limited in Britain.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The usual colonial resentment of the mother-country, like some typical adolescent!

Thunderbird said...

RIGHT WING BUTTHOLES

Bird of Paradise said...

Thunderbird if your looking for a butthole look in a mirror

Anonymous said...

'free speech is very limited in Britain' is one of the biggest understatements of the century. There simply is no free speech in Britain anymore.

Anonymous said...

Bird of Paradise.........liberals dare not look in the mirror, nor at the inevitable consequences of their absurd ideology.

Anonymous said...

6:10 your statement is simply silly!

Anonymous said...

3:19 ---well the Brits can still exercise free speech by whispering what they really think in the bathroom. For the time being anyway.

Anonymous said...

Every time I hear about something like this, I think "what would a private sector company do?"

Imagine if you will a stockholder in a company that notices discrepancies in an annual report where other stock holders were hurt.

The person brings that to the attention of the company, and the comptroller tweets out "I hope you go poor and die!" to the stockholder.

I don't think a single company would not fire the comptroller. Not a one. The comptroller would be gone so fast it would leave heads spinning.

And rightfully so.

The problem here is that the paramedic is a government employee. You don't want government censoring speech but at the same time there can and should be consequences to some speech even by government employees.

The idea of free speech comes from the benefit to society of the exchange of ideas. Does a paramedic wishing a disease on a woman count as an exchange of ideas? Does it add anything to the topic of conversation?

The guy's comment was idiotic and unprofessional in any business setting. He should be gone. Whether he should have his license suspended is another issue (I would say no) but "free speech" does not mean "speech without consequences."

Go Away Bird said...

Just be happy were not in the Euroweenie Union

Anonymous said...

Just be happy we're not in the Go-Away-Bird aviary of 'dicks-licks-ya'!