Paramedics to be taught self-defence

PARAMEDICS are to be given self-defence lessons because police are failing to respond to calls for help, an ambulance service says.

Crews are being trained to restrain patients after the head of South Western Ambulance Service said assistance from police had reduced.

At the trust’s latest board meeting, Ken Wenman, the chief executive, said the trust had moved to begin restraint training because “police response to an incident to restrain a member of the public had reduced, therefore the risk to staff would be increased”.

Response times by police forces across the South West have been dropping, while the number of attacks on ambulance staff has almost doubled in the last year. A spokesman for the trust said safe holding would only be used as an absolute last resort.

Nick Bailey, a regional officer for the union Unite, said: “This development has been generated by the drop in police numbers nationally.

“Paramedics are now expected to fill in for that shortfall in police numbers – this is another responsibility our already hard-pressed members will have to absorb into their very busy shifts.”

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said the police would continue to aid the ambulance service if and when needed, but welcomed the training, saying the trust had a “responsibility and duty of care towards both their staff and the public”.