'We're attacked and abused as we try to save lives'

Violence and abuse against paramedics and emergency call handlers is on the rise, with reported cases up by more than a third since 2019, the BBC has found.

Almost 45,000 assaults were recorded by ambulance services across England over the last five years, with staff saying they had been punched, kicked, threatened with weapons and subjected to racist, homophobic and religious abuse.

Paramedic Nutan Patel-West, 41, said she had been racially abused "multiple times" while on shift and, during one call-out in 2021, narrowly avoided serious injury after a glass ashtray was hurled at her.

The government said there was a "zero-tolerance approach to this type of behaviour" and warned that those who assault emergency workers can face up to two years in prison.

Mrs Patel-West, who has worked for North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) for more than a decade, said: "I've been verbally abused, racially abused, punched and had a knife drawn on me.

"On one job a patient said 'you need to go back to your own country, you're not welcome here' before he threw an ashtray at my head. He missed by inches.

"I signed up to this job to help people, not this."

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Source: BBC News, 4 December 2024