Worker Fired In Ambulances Scandal ‘Turns Down Pay-Off Of £50,000’

An ambulance worker sacked for sending paramedics to pick up her drunken boss from a nightclub said yesterday she had rejected a £50,000 out-of-court settlement. Margaret Gokce is instead taking legal action against the Scottish Ambulance Service, citing unfair dismissal, after a three-year battle to clear her name.

She claims fresh evidence will prove she was the victim of a cover-up. Ms Gokce, who received a letter of commendation for her work only months before she was dismissed, says she wants the public to know the truth about the service.

Her case is being investigated by the Scottish Information Commissioner, amid claims that the ambulance service doctored transcripts from a recording of events in the control room in Glasgow on the night of an office party. She is demanding access to the original tapes, which she says will set the record straight.

The mother of three accuses ambulance managers of using 999 crews as taxis for personal errands. She said: “They use the ambulance as a taxi service, calling crews for a lift to the other side of the city or delivering keys because they’re locked out. I’ve seen them go into supermarkets to do their shopping while the ambulance is parked outside.”

Ms Gokce, 52, lost her original employment tribunal in 2005 but has since won the right to an appeal, expected next month. The problem arose shortly before 1am on 28 August, 2003, when an ambulance was sent to Cleopatra’s nightclub in Glasgow, where ambulance staff were at a works’ night out. Although Ms Gokce suspected her colleagues had been drinking, she said she had no reason to believe the call was not genuine.

Denise Macdonald, her former manager and an ambulance control-room supervisor in Glasgow, was taken home by paramedics that night and was later sacked. It is understood her condition was drink-related and not serious, but she was driven home by ambulance – a move which breaches guidelines laid down by the service. Ms Gokce insists she acted in good faith because she believed her boss was seriously ill and in urgent need of an ambulance.

A copy of the ambulance service’s training manual states staff should never doubt the integrity of a caller, even if they presume a person has been drinking.

She lost her job in October 2003 after a disciplinary hearing found her guilty of inappropriate use of an emergency vehicle – a charge she denies. Ms Gokce, who had been with the service for 15 years and wants to be reinstated in her job, claims that, on the night in question, there was only one emergency call-taker on duty to cover two million people throughout Glasgow and Lanarkshire.

A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said Ms Gokce had been through a lengthy disciplinary process at work and she remained “rightfully dismissed”.