TWO Welsh Ambulance Service paramedics have been suspended for not taking a 22 year-old Newport man, who later died, to hospital.

Ian Powell and Lindsey C Brown were suspended for a year by independent regulator, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) yesterday.

A Panel of the HCPC conduct and competence committee heard that the paramedics responded to an incident at a party in Allt-yr-yn where Patient A had drunk a large amount of alcohol on April 24, 2010.

In their assessment of Patient A’s condition, they failed to assimilate all relevant information and he was left with his friends rather than taken to hospital, the report stated.

The hearing was told that the decision had not been explained satisfactorily.

Another ambulance was called for the patient 24 minutes later, at which point he was in cardiac arrest. He was then taken to hospital but did not regain consciousness and died in the early hours the next day.

Chairwoman of the panel Linda Summers said: "It is a fact that neither can nor should be ignored that Patient A died. However, it is important to record the fact that neither the terms of the HCPC’s allegation nor the way in which the case was advanced at the hearing involved a contention that it was the defaults of Mr Powell and Miss Brown that resulted in Patient A’s death."

She said the panel had made no decision on the matter "and it should not be thought the panel’s decision carries with it an implied finding one way or the other on this issue of causation."

She added: "What underpins this case was the failure, as already noted, to assimilate all the relevant information at the scene, and, secondly, the allowing of irrelevant factors to over-ride clinical judgement. At no time, even now, has either registrant been able to offer a satisfactory explanation why the house and the people provided a safer environment for Patient A than the hospital."

Both employees were suspended from the register for 12 months with an interim suspension order in place to cover the appeal period.