NHS: Paramedic struck off after conspiring to steal drugs from terminally ill patients' homes

A paramedic has been struck off after being convicted of conspiring to steal opiates from terminally ill patients.

In a final hearing with the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service, Jessica Silvester was officially struck off after a panel ruled that she was unfit to continue working. Silvester, who had been working for South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, had been convicted in 2022 of conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to commit burglary, and was sentenced to a five-year custodial sentence.

The panel heard how Silvester started taking opiates which had been given to her by her partner, a fellow employee of the NHS trust. From February 2018 onwards, the pair began stealing medical equipment, including a £14,000 portable ultrasound machine.

In 2020, the pair began consipring to steal from patients' homes, where patients and their carers stored opiate drugs. These were generally prescribed to patients receiving end-of-life care.

A report into Silvester's hearing read: "The registrant [Silvester] misused her position as a person trusted with sensitive personal data to discover the details of very vulnerable patients who were likely to have access to controlled drugs including opiate medication. Silvester passed this confidential patient information to Person L [her partner].

"Her partner then attended the homes of the patients, dressed in clothes likely to mislead the patients and their carers that her partner was a nurse, gaining admittance to the addresses. Her partner would pretend that a medication review was necessary or that the drugs had to be returned to the NHS. Her partner would then distract the occupants of the address and then steal the drugs unnoticed.

"They conspired together to burgle a total of 29 homes prior to their arrests on August 5 2021, including the homes of vulnerable patients who were terminally ill, and in some cases the homes of patients who had recently died."

The panel concluded that striking off Silvester was "the only appropriate sanction". The former paramedic did not attend the hearing.