Philip Bastable

Introduction

Philip Bastable is a paramedic who had been working out of Elite Emergency Medical Services’ (EEMS) ambulance station in Maidstone, and who has been struck off the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register after using a colleague’s urine sample to pass a drug test. The HCPC is a health and care regulator, and by law, people must be registered with it to work in the UK. Bastable deceived bosses over his substance use during his employment; he was dismissed by the ambulance service in September 2023 and has now been removed from the register following an investigation by its tribunal service. The strike-off was reported by KentOnline on 20 March 2026.

Background Information

Bastable worked as a paramedic for Elite Emergency Medical Services, based at the private ambulance service’s Maidstone ambulance station. Alongside that role, he served as director and principal instructor for his own first aid at work training company, PJB Training; the firm is still active, according to Companies House.

The concerns that ended his paramedic work reached his employer through his own household. On Sunday, August 27, 2023, an EEMS colleague and then housemate alerted the ambulance station supervisor to concerns for Bastable’s behaviour and of possible drug use. The following morning, while on duty, Bastable was informed that he was due to be drug-tested.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. The findings below are regulatory findings made by a Health and Care Professions Council panel on the civil standard (the balance of probabilities), not criminal convictions, and no criminal proceedings were reported. The misconduct the panel found against Bastable was the deception — using a colleague’s urine to evade a drug test — together with the positive controlled-environment retest; substance use itself was not the subject of any criminal allegation.

Rather than take the test he had been told about that Monday, Bastable asked another colleague to take it for him after suggesting that his drink had been spiked. But during the hearing, it was revealed he had, in fact, been using cocaine at the time. The panel heard how he would take the drug after drinking alcohol during weekends, spending up to £250 on cocaine and often requiring one or two days off work to recover from binges. It was reported he had not taken it again since September 19, 2023.

After providing his colleague’s urine sample to pass the test, bosses were later informed that the result had been falsified. Another one was ordered on September 11 to be conducted at Maidstone ambulance station within a more “controlled environment”. The result of the second test was a positive reading for Class A drug Oxycodone and Class C drug Tramadol. An interim order — which prevents or puts limits on a registrant from practising until their case is heard — was issued in November 2023.

At a hearing held between February 25 and 26 of this year, Bastable admitted to allegations that he had used a colleague’s urine to evade the initial test, but denied that his fitness to practise was impaired by reason of misconduct. He also denied ingesting Tramadol and Oxycodone, claiming that he had an “extreme physical reaction” to drugs of this type and that any level of opioids made him feel unwell, and suggested the reading was a false positive due to a reaction after taking over-the-counter sleeping pills, Nytol, just days before the test. In support of his case, he produced a seven-page bundle of documents taken from sources on the internet, which discussed or referred to false negative results in connection with a number of drugs, including Tramadol. The panel was left unconvinced by his evidence due to the small margin for error with the test, and the documents did not address the Oxycodone reading in the result. It also did not find Bastable to be a credible or reliable witness and concluded that he did knowingly ingest both of the drugs prior to the test on September 11.

Public Reaction and Consequences

After considering the evidence, the panel deemed that Bastable’s actions amounted to misconduct and found his dishonesty to be “very near the top of the scale of seriousness”. The report said: “The registrant [Mr Bastable] only admitted that he had evaded the drugs test when the HCPC investigated the matter.” It continued: “Before this panel, he has not demonstrated the necessary commitment to remedy the misconduct, having failed to engage consistently with the necessary drug and alcohol testing.” The report added: “The panel has concluded that there is a high risk of repetition of the misconduct.”

As a result, it decided that a striking-off order was necessary, and Bastable has been removed from the HCPC register. The employment consequences had landed earlier: he was dismissed by the ambulance service in September 2023. EEMS was approached for comment.

Current Status

Bastable is struck off the HCPC register, which by law he needed to be on to work in the UK. Following the hearing conclusion, the HCPC applied for an interim order to cover the 28-day appeal period. His first aid training firm, PJB Training, was still listed as active at Companies House at the time of reporting. No appeal against the striking-off order was reported.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The striking-off order ends Bastable’s registered paramedic career and with it his work out of the EEMS ambulance station in Maidstone, closing off not just that job but any UK paramedic role, since registration with the HCPC is a legal requirement for the profession. The panel’s finding that his dishonesty sat “very near the top of the scale of seriousness”, combined with its conclusion that he had not demonstrated the necessary commitment to remedy the misconduct and that there was a high risk of repetition, meant the least severe sanction was insufficient and removal from the register was the outcome.

The findings also attach to his second professional identity: Bastable was director and principal instructor of PJB Training, a first aid at work training company, and while the firm remained active at Companies House, its principal instructor is now a struck-off paramedic with findings of a falsified drug test and a positive controlled-environment result for Oxycodone and Tramadol on his regulatory record.