Whistleblower 'stood down' after early morning crash photo

A whistleblower has claimed he was sacked after he took a photo of a crashed ambulance which he said highlighted fatigue issues faced by paramedics.

Andrew Bishop had spent 40 years volunteering and working in emergency services when his career was halted by the shot of an ambulance rollover.

He was in a National Patient Transport (NPT) vehicle that came across the early morning crash and helped free the exhausted paramedic inside.

“I went out there to help Jim out when he had rolled over, I only went out there with the best intentions to help him out,” Bishop said.

“I shared the photo as evidence of a fatigue-related incident.”

When the image went public it sparked first a bungled response from Ambulance Victoria, followed by a no confidence motion in the CEO and mounting pressure on the government to ease paramedics’ workloads.

“From our point of view he’s done a service both to his colleagues and to the community,” Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said.

But Bishop said the repercussions were immediate.

“An hour after it was released to the news, I received a phone call to tell me that I’d been stood down,” he said.

Three months later the NPT has swung the axe.

“He deserves to be commended for his actions, not terminated,” Hill said.

“We call on the employer to rethink this decision, it’s a massive over-reach.”

The matter may now be headed for Fair Work.

NPT told 9News the decision to terminate Bishop’s employment was not based on the capturing and distribution of the photograph.

“It is effectively a witch hunt because I’ve been a health and safety rep,” Bishop said.

The paramedic who rolled the ambulance had told the company it would be “very disappointing for me if the NPT crew had been adversely affected by attending me that night”.

“That’s what mates do and the emergency services need to look after and support one another,” Avard said.

Bishop said he wanted to highlight the issue and the scene he faced that morning.

“It’s easy for an employer to have 20-20 vision in hindsight from their office in Melbourne but the reality of a rolled over ambulance on the side of the road at 2am in the morning near Myrtleford is often incredibly different,” he said.