Assaults on 999 lifesavers on rise
ATTACKS on Welsh Ambulance Service staff attending 999 calls have shot up in the past three years.
Workers reported a total of 905 assaults between April 2013 and the end of March last year.
Ambulance chiefs say it’s “completely unacceptable” staff are subjected to any form of abuse or violence while they’re out helping people in need of treatment.
The statistics, which were released by the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust (WAST) following a Freedom of Information request, show an overall rise of 13% in the number of attacks on staff.
In 2013/14, there were 290 reported attacks compared to 286 for 2014/15 and 329 in 2015/16.
Attacks on emergency service staff included employees being physically assaulted, verbally abused and the victim of sexual harassment and indecent exposure.
Other incidents saw staff being bitten by animals, subjected to aggressive and threatening behaviour and being threatened with weapons.
Physical assaults and verbal abuse accounted for the majority of reported attacks.
Claire Vaughan, the Welsh Ambulance Service’s executive director for workforce and organisational development, said such attacks prevent employees from caring for others and have a “lasting physical and mental impact on staff”.
“We take a zero tolerance attitude to this kind of behaviour and will continue to work with police and the Crown Prosecution Service to identify those involved and seek prosecution,” said Ms Vaughan.
She said they aimed to protect colleagues by training them in ways of dealing with attacks, and supporting anyone who had been a victim.
“Not only can these incidents have a lasting physical and mental impact on our hardworking staff, but they also prevent them from caring for others, so we would ask everyone to treat them with the respect they deserve.”
Union bosses say assaults are not just carried out by patients who are under the influence or who do not have mental capacity to understand their behaviour, but also carried out by patients’ families, friends and abusive crowds.
Darron Dupre, ambulance lead for UNISON Cymru Wales, which is the largest union at WAST, said they supported a “zero tolerance approach” backed by the use of the criminal justice system.
He added: “It is a terrible indictment of how little we value emergency crews that reported assaults in Wales are so commonplace. Frontline ambulance staff come to work to save life often under impossibly difficult and traumatic circumstances.
“Whilst there are a number of policies and procedures in place designed to keep our crews as safe as possible, there is no substitute for members of the public supporting the work of Welsh Ambulance staff by allowing them to get on with their job unheeded.”