A PARAMEDIC who posted photographs of patients on Instagram to try boost his struggling jewellery business has been struck off.

Simon Williams, from Clacton, had more than 11 years' service with the ambulance service and became a paramedic in 2008.

He also had an online jewellery business.

A misconduct tribunal was told he posted 24 photos on picture-sharing website Instagram which identified patients and their medical conditions in 2014.

Williams said he hoped it would attract more people to his jewellery website, which was struggling.

A member of the public alerted ambulance service bosses to the photos in December 2014.

More graphic pictures of patients being attended to were discovered by Colchester Hospital on January 1, 2015.

Some of the photos had inappropriate comments attached to them.

The hospital claimed the Instagram posts brought it into disrepute and breached patient confidentiality.

The photos included:

* Extensive blood on a floor, with a comment about it being a “bloodbath”, and the diagnosis, age and sex of the patient.

* Blood on a floor following what he claimed was a “stabbing”. He later said it was not a stabbing and he had “glamourised” the event to make the photo more dramatic, and attract interest in his jewellery company.

* A car collision with the comment “got to laugh sometimes”, which he agreed was cruel and inappropriate when interviewed by the East of England NHS Foundation Trust.

* A patient he described as an "idiot" on the floor of an ambulance.

* A lorry collision with the words “no one dead on this one”.

* A patient being treated following a heart attack.

Williams had admitted taking the photographs and posting some online while he was still on duty.

He did not attend the tribunal due to health issues, but said in an email he would never work as a paramedic again.

The case was heard in his absence by the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service.

The tribunal panel said Williams had "created enduring and repeated images of patients and events of a deeply unpleasant and offensive nature".

It continued: "In addition, the misguided and unintelligent comments made by him combine to create a picture of this registrant as a highly unprofessional and naïve individual.

"He had covertly taken offensive and graphic photographs of, and relating to, patients/service users and their private and confidential details and posted them on a public social media platform, often with highly inappropriate comments, also without their consent.

"The misfortune and ill health of the service users was there for all to see, read, and, if so inclined, to ridicule."

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We investigated the case fully when allegations came to light.

"We suspended him on the grounds of gross misconduct in January 2015 and was dismissed from the trust in April 2015."