Rachel Lemonofides

Introduction

Rachel Claire Lemonofides is a former paramedic with North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, which serves Salford, and a British Army reservist. In August 2026 a Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service panel struck her off the HCPC register after finding that during a January 2024 emergency call she taunted a seriously ill woman — later found to have suffered a stroke and a ruptured aorta — refused to help her descend the stairs, and made racially motivated remarks. She had been dismissed by the ambulance service in July 2024.

Background Information

Lemonofides worked as a paramedic for North West Ambulance Service and served as an Army reservist, reportedly with the rank of staff sergeant. The call came on 11 January 2024: a woman preparing for work felt a sharp pain in her chest that became unbearable and had her housemates call an ambulance, which was told of pain in the patient’s throat, chest and back as well as a high temperature. Lemonofides arrived at the property at 8.21am with a colleague. The patient — referred to in the proceedings as Patient A and never named — was eventually taken to Wythenshawe Hospital, where staff told her a blood clot on the brain had caused a stroke and her aorta had burst. She was given a 50 per cent chance of surviving emergency heart surgery and spent time in intensive care.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. The findings below are regulatory findings made by the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service on the civil standard (the balance of probabilities), not criminal convictions, and no criminal proceedings were reported. The remarks attributed to Lemonofides are those the panel found proved or that witnesses described in evidence.

The crew spent nearly two hours at the address. The tribunal found that Lemonofides failed to recognise how seriously ill the patient was, and heard that she refused to help her stand or descend the stairs. One housemate described the woman reaching out to ask for help and the paramedic physically moving away, saying, ‘I’m not going to help you.’

The panel ruled that the comments alleged against Lemonofides in the disciplinary schedule had been proved. Audio recordings and witness evidence captured sustained mockery. She told the patient, ‘Jesus and Jehovah are not coming to help you.’ She dismissed the crisis, saying, ‘You are not dying, you have got a bad back.’ She infantilised the woman — ‘You are acting ridiculous now’ and ‘You are stuck on the floor like a child’ — and said, ‘I am really mad now because people are waiting for this ambulance and you are acting like a child.’ She gave the patient a countdown: ‘You have 60 seconds to get up or we are leaving.’ She also said, ‘Stop being a baby, many people need this ambulance, we will tell your employer that you are being funny,’ and shouted at the unwell woman to ‘act your age’.

A separate strand of findings concerned discrimination. Lemonofides made comments about the patient acting ‘possessed’ and asked her housemate, ‘Does she believe in black magic or anything like that?’ All four witnesses were shocked by these comments, which the patient and two housemates believed were discriminatory based on the patient’s race and ethnicity. The panel found the comments were made for a purpose — to refer to the patient’s race — and demonstrated hostility or a discriminatory attitude towards the relevant racial group. When the patient cried out in her native language, Lemonofides could be heard saying ‘stop with this nonsense.’ A colleague confirmed that on two other calls that day, involving white female patients, she did not treat either woman in the same manner. The panel ruled that she treated the patient less favourably because of her ethnicity.

The tribunal stressed she could not reasonably have been expected to diagnose the patient’s unusual condition at the scene, but found the leg numbness, low blood pressure and chest pain gave sufficient warning that the patient was seriously ill. She admitted making the comments alleged in the first particular but denied in July 2025 that her remarks were discriminatory or racially motivated, and did not attend the final hearing. A further allegation — that she told a colleague after the incident, ‘If it had been filmed, you would watch it back and laugh at it.’ — was found proved.

Public Reaction and Consequences

A colleague complained about her behaviour on 13 January 2024, followed two days later by a written complaint from a relative of Patient A. Lemonofides was restricted from working on 5 March 2024 and dismissed by North West Ambulance Service on 11 July 2024 following an investigation. She then failed to notify the HCPC of her dismissal as soon as possible, despite being required to do so.

The panel agreed that Lemonofides acted in an ‘abhorrent way,’ showing a lack of dignity and respect for a patient subjected to ‘unacceptable’ treatment over a drawn-out period, and concluded she acted in a grossly unprofessional manner. HCPC representative Simon Maughan said she had let personal biases affect the care she gave, exposing the patient to an ‘obvious risk of significant physical harm, in addition to mental harm.’ The panel found the conduct amounted to serious professional misconduct and cited the harm caused, the potential damage to public confidence in paramedics, her lack of insight or remediation and her failure to engage with the hearing as aggravating factors. It rejected the idea of a single lapse: the incident lasted nearly two hours, was minimised in the remark to her colleague, and was compounded by her failure to report her restrictions and dismissal. A NWAS spokesman said all patients were entitled to dignity and respect and there was no place within the trust for colleagues who failed to uphold those values.

Current Status

Lemonofides was struck off the HCPC register on 14 August 2026, her name removed after the panel found she was guilty of serious misconduct. She no longer works for North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust. No appeal against the strike-off was reported.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The strike-off ended Lemonofides’ paramedic career: dismissal removed her from the ambulance service, and removal from the HCPC register bars her from practising in any regulated paramedic role. Her Army reservist standing remains unclear, an Army spokesman citing data protection duties in declining to release information about the case. The patient survived only after emergency heart surgery she had a 50 per cent chance of surviving.