I know a (very) little about what happened that night. 24601, have you ever carried someone down stairs on a carry chair? If you have you will know it's not easy, comfortable for the patient or in terms of H&S safe for your back. It then becomes even more difficult if you have to try to manouver past a large obstruction on the stairs that the householder (or other people in the house) wont move out of the way. If your patient is unconcious then you may want to break your employers H&S regs and move said obstruction but since your patient is 'with it' and reasonably mobile you make the decision to 'walk' them downstairs. A lot of the reason this paramedic has been damned by the HPC is to do with the fact he didnt attend in his defence. Had he attended at his own cost, with an overnight stay at his own cost, with a lawyer who he might have got from the union if he was lucky. He would have travelled 200 miles to face a panel who also stayed in a hotel, who's expences he pays his registration fee for. All to be told he should have looked in a womans eyes, taken her blood pressure and risked his back carrying her downstairs and end up getting her to hospital 15 to 20 minutes after he did. He would then have got disciplined and suspended for not hot-footing her to hospital. It's no wonder sickness is so high (40% to 50% here), shifts are uncovered and no one wants to be an ECP or Paramedic anymore.