'Concerning' rise in assaults on South Western Ambulance staff
There was a big increase over the festive period
Last updated 21st Jan 2021
South Western Ambulance say they are concerned about a rise in assaults on staff members.
Between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day, they experienced 50 incidents of violence and aggression from patients and members of the public, with 16 physical assaults.
That's double the number during the same nine-day period in the previous year.
It's also an 85% increase in overall incidents.
Some of these incidents include a crew responding to a patient holding a kitchen knife on Christmas Day and then his car colliding with the ambulance as he tried to leave the scene.
Meanwhile another team were threatened with a baseball bat by a motorist.
Paramedic Mike Jones, SWASFT's Violence Reduction Lead, said:
"We are disappointed by this concerning rise in violence and aggression towards our colleagues during the busy Christmas and New Year period.
These incidents included our control room colleagues being verbally abused, and our ambulance crews being threatened, kicked, pushed, punched, spat at and subjected to other inappropriate behaviour.
It is unacceptable to abuse and assault our staff, and it must stop.
We continue to work with our police colleagues to ensure all offenders are brought to justice and our people can work without being threatened or attacked."
Throughout 2020, SWASFT staff reported a total of 1,584 violence and aggression incidents during 2020.
This is an increase of 64% from 2019.
A SWASFT spokesperson said:
"Sadly our people experience violence and aggression every day while they are trying to protect and save people’s lives.
This is unacceptable, and can have serious consequences on them, their families and colleagues. It can also delay or even prevent us treating those who really need our care.
We are fully committed to supporting the health, wellbeing and safety of our people. That means we offer immediate support to anyone who experiences violence and aggression on duty. It also means we take whatever action is necessary to prevent them from harm and keep them safe.
Please respect our people, and help them to help you."