Tag: assaults on staff

Ambulance Staff Assaulted Nearly Once a Day

A Scottish Ambulance Service staff member is verbally or physically assaulted nearly once a day, new figures from the Service have revealed.

For the year, 2023-24, 346 staff experienced abuse – an increase of 11% over the previous year.

This has included incidents of spitting, punching and threatening staff with bottles or other weapons.

Verbal assaults saw the biggest increase over the previous year, rising by 30%

Call handler Declan Cowan, based at SAS’s West Ambulance Control Centre in Cardonald, has spoken of one incident. He said: “It was a really busy day and there was a queue of calls all day due to the pressure on the service. I received a call from a patient who I triaged through our system and the advice was to have them contact their GP or NHS24.

“The caller wasn’t happy that he was not getting an ambulance and proceeded to shout at me over the phone. He said if he died or anything happened to him that I would be to blame, he called me horrible and derogatory names that attacked both my character and identity and he also threatened that he would find out where I was based and come find me. It was a really scary and upsetting call.”

SAS Chief Executive Michael Dickson said: “Our staff are having to deal with incidents nearly every single day and no form of abuse will be tolerated. They have the right to carry out their work helping patients and saving lives without fear of assault or abuse.

“We also strongly condemn the abuse our hardworking call handlers face on a daily basis. We understand calling 999 can be a stressful time during emergencies, but abusing our staff is totally unacceptable.

“Physical and verbal assaults can have a significant and lasting impact on our people, sometimes even leading them to leave the ambulance service. We will continue to work with Police Scotland to take action against perpetrators, which includes those who abuse our 999 staff.”

Over 300 assaults on ambulance staff

More than 300 Scottish Ambulance Service staff have been physically or verbally abused in the past year according to latest statistics.

The figures show that 328 staff have suffered abuse, attacks with weapons and death threats this year, with ambulance staff having to deal with incidents of abuse almost every day.

Of these 328 incidents – an increase of 51 over the previous year – 21 staff were threatened with either a knife or bottle, while 140 were either punched, kicked or spat on.

There have also been 124 incidents this year of verbal abuse towards staff.

Michael Dickson, Chief Executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “We strongly condemn violence against our staff. They have the right to carry out their work helping patients and saving lives without fear of assault or abuse.

“Our staff are having to deal with incidents nearly every single day and that is totally unacceptable. No form of abuse will be tolerated and we will continue to work with Police Scotland to take action against perpetrators.”

The majority of the assaults or abuse was in the West region with 176 this year. There have been 123 incidents of physical or verbal abuse in the East, while in the North there have been 27 this year.

New data reveals the numbers of attacks on ambulance staff

There have been over 500 verbal or physical assaults on the Scottish Ambulance Service’s staff by members of the public between January 2020 and October 2021, new data from the Service has revealed.  

In one incident in Oxgangs, Edinburgh on 20th November, the Service received a hoax call for a cardiac arrest, and when a crew were dispatched to the scene, the vehicle was hit with a number of unknown objects. There have also been incidents where call handlers have been verbally-assaulted, and staff members have been spat at.

The Service has a range of measures in place to help protect staff, such as training in managing aggression and assessing risk, and areas where staff have previously faced violence or threatening behaviour are taken into consideration and communicated to attending crews.  However assaults against staff leave a lasting effect, and as we come into the party season, it’s more important than ever to raise awareness of the issues.

The Scottish Government has also recently launched a campaign to tackle attacks against front-line staff. Their Health Worker Respect Campaign has been produced to help reduce levels of violent and abusive behaviour being experienced by health and social care workers following increased demands on NHS services as a result of the Covid pandemic. It also aims to raise awareness of the challenges staff are facing and the consequences inappropriate behaviour can have on staff members.

Pauline Howie, Chief Executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “Assaults and anti-social behaviour are completely unacceptable, and our staff should not have to fear for their safety when treating patients, or to be verbally-assaulted over the phone when handling calls.

“They work incredibly hard, helping people in need and keeping them safe, and sadly, we’ve seen incidents occur in other parts of the NHS and against our police and fire colleagues too. We also provide support to staff to report incidents to Police Scotland, so that they can take the matter further.”

Total Number of Incidents by Incident date (Month and year) and Category 
    
 Assault PhysicalAssault VerbalTotal
Jan 202012517
Feb 2020151227
Mar 202010717
Apr 202011718
May 202014721
Jun 2020101424
Jul 2020191332
Aug 2020171532
Sep 202014923
Oct 202013821
Nov 20209817
Dec 20206511
Jan 20216814
Feb 2021121527
Mar 202116723
Apr 202181119
May 2021131225
Jun 2021161026
Jul 202113720
Aug 2021211132
Sep 2021131124
Oct 2021211435
Total289216505