Two more assaults on ambulance crews overnight
Two more ambulance crews were attacked on Monday night – one with a 9-inch kitchen knife - after being called to patients reporting potentially life-threatening injuries.
The latest assaults are part of a pattern of increasing attacks on staff. On the Saturday before last, three crews were assaulted in separate incidents which left two ambulance workers seeking hospital treatment.
Paul Liversidge, deputy chief executive of North East Ambulance Service (NEAS), said: “Enough is enough. This despicable behaviour is harming my staff and putting the lives of other patients at risk when we’re unable to respond to the next emergency because of an assault.
“I am sending a clear message to those who think it’s okay to attack my staff that we will not tolerate this behaviour. I will support my crews with the full weight of this organisation to prosecute those individuals and ensure that the courts act not just to punish those who attack emergency workers, but that their sentences also act as a deterrent for others who believe this is acceptable behaviour.”
Last night, a crew was attacked in Choppington after being called to a patient who was reported as unconscious and not breathing. Two ambulance crews and a rapid response paramedic attended and were able to revive the patient, who then started lashing out.
One paramedic reported that the patient spat into their eye and slapped them. When the crew retreated to the safety of their vehicle, they were chased by the patient while armed with a 9-inch kitchen knife. He began hitting the side of the ambulance with the handle of the knife and trying to break a window before police arrived and arrested him.
The patient was so violent he had to be transported to hospital in the back of a police van. The ambulance crew were checked over at Northumbria Hospital, but thankfully were not seriously harmed.
In a separate incident in the early hours of this morning, an ambulance paramedic was violently punched in the stomach while treating a patient for a stab wound in the Langley Park area of County Durham. The paramedic was too badly injured to continue her shift and is now currently off work.
Notes to editors
Notes to editors
For last Monday's story on assaults, please follow this link: https://www.neas.nhs.uk/news/2020/july/13/a-night-of-drink-and-drugs-ends-in-violence-against-three-ambulance-crews.aspx
For more information, contact the NEAS press office on 07559 918672 or email publicrelations@neas.nhs.uk
About the North East Ambulance Service
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS) covers 3,200 square miles across the North East region. It employs more than 2,600 staff and serves a population of 2.7 million people by handling all NHS111 and 999 calls for the region, operating patient transport and ambulance response services, delivering training for communities and commercial audiences and providing medical support cover at events.
In 2018/19 we answered more than 1.4m emergency 999 and NHS 111 calls, with almost 290,000 patients taken to hospital, 21,500 treated and discharged over the phone and more than 100,000 treated and discharged at home. Almost 76,000 emergency incidents were reached within seven minutes and more than 570,000 Patient Transport Service journeys were made. Over the year we responded to almost 6,000 road traffic incidents. 6,300 people were trained in CPR and defibrillator awareness and 167 new community defibrillators were registered.