A SENIOR ambulance officer faked emergency calls to help his control room lover hit emergency response targets, a hearing was told.

Simon Surplice, an operations supervisor with South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust, allegedly made the bogus calls to his control room when he was off duty to boost the woman’s professional performance, the Health Professions Council (HPC) heard.

A routine spot-check uncovered the alleged fake calls – as well as saucy conversations – recorded routinely, between 46-year-old Mr Surplice and his mistress during work hours.

The committee heard how the investigation found that Mr Surplice and the woman, named only as Miss X, also allegedly diverted an air ambulance so it would fly over St Peter’s Church, Bishop’s Waltham, to mark the funeral of a colleague.

On one occasion, Mr Surplice’s emergency vehicle was also traced to outside her house and he had allegedly made attempts to disable the tracking device on it to cover his tracks.

The alleged irregularities and the relationship between Mr Surplice and Miss X, who was a senior control manager at the emergency control centre in Sparrowgrove, Eastleigh, was uncovered during a routine investigation into “running calls” – the most serious incidents reported as category A.

Mr Surplice admits making inappropriate calls while on duty but denies all other charges.

Transcripts of the calls read out to the panel also revealed how Mr Surplice would call Miss X, who was seen as a leading light at the centre because of her performance, with saucy comments.

In one call, meeting for sex is suggested at a location nicknamed “Teletubby Hill”, which is on trust property, but out of range of CCTV.

In a recording, while discussing their relationship, the pair also joked about how an investigation into their affair would never stick at a disciplinary hearing – and that there was nothing in his contract to say you could not have sex with a senior manager during a lunch break.

In other calls regarding Miss X’s performance targets, Mr Surplice asked her if they were “going up” as fast as his excitement.

Mr Surplice was recorded saying: “I will do anything to help your statistics. I will do anything for you. I love you, I love you.

“I want to get you in bed and do lovely things to you.”

In another recording Mr Surplice said: “I will see if I can get a little bit more for you before you go. It’s easy, isn’t it?

The panel was told how in one allegedly faked entry, Mr Surplice called Miss X from a charity event for disabled people at Moorhen Trout Fishery in Warnford, on May 1, 2009, where he was off duty and volunteering as a first-aider.

The “running calls” included reports of a man with head injuries and a woman having a fit.

Sarah Harris, for the HPC, said Mr Surplice also called Miss X on May 23, 2009, with three allegedly bogus “running calls”, even though he was off duty and attending a wedding at Portsmouth Naval Base.

He reported that he had responded to a drunk man falling over, a drunk girl who was hyperventilating and also the treatment of an asthmatic girl, it was claimed.

John Radburn, who investigated the allegations for the trust, told the hearing how there would typically be a small number of “running calls” reported by paramedics each day.

They would automatically be classed as a category A call, which has been responded to within the strict eightminute response time target.

But the panel was told how when probing the running calls made by Mr Surplice, no supporting documents could be found.

The three running calls entered into the system could be the difference between Ms X hitting her target and not. Mr Radburn said he looked at the phone calls made between Mr Surplice and Miss X, and found that they would often call each other while they were on duty.

He said: “There would be a few seconds of a business element, but after that it would be lovey-dovey.

“From time to time these calls went on for a considerable amount of time. They were not concentrating on what they were supposed to be doing.”

The steamy telephone conversations sometimes involved talking about meeting for sex.

After one of the calls, on May 2, 2009, Mr Surplice’s ambulance was detected outside Miss X’s home, between 12.32pm and 2.53pm.

Mr Radburn said: “The vehicle was sitting still for a long period of time.”

Proceeding.