Kent paramedics face rise in violence

Exclusive data shows physical assaults have more than doubled over the last decade.  Oliver Leader de Saxe reports.

Transcript

00:00more abuse than ever before.

00:03That's the reality for ambulance crews across Kent, Surrey and Sussex

00:08as data exclusively obtained by KMTV

00:12shows that both physical and sexual assaults

00:15against frontline staff working for the South East Coast Ambulance Service

00:20have doubled over the last decade.

00:23And it's no different here for staff

00:26at the Services Operational Centre in Gillingham

00:30with Kent Ambulance staff facing 470 incidents in 2024 alone.

00:38And actually in 2024 we had 330 assaults on staff

00:43so it's almost getting to one a day.

00:47I think the staff are more confident in reporting incidents

00:52because of the process we have set up to support them when those incidents occur.

00:58But I think also as you've seen nationally

01:01incidents are rising which is not acceptable.

01:05But it's not just physical abuse against ambulance staff that's on the rise.

01:10For the dozens of 999 call takers here in Gillingham

01:14verbal harassment is becoming a problem in everyday life.

01:20Every day probably every call taker will have some form of abuse

01:23maybe several times throughout the day in their shift

01:26and you can kind of hear it going on around the room as well.

01:29We can hear from the abuse that we're getting on that side

01:32and then knowing that a crew has to go out to that and face that

01:35it's not nice.

01:36We've had cases where they've been attacked, maybe spat on, verbally abused.

01:40It's not nice to hear.

01:42Between 2022 and 2024

01:45there are nearly 1,000 incidents involving call handlers.

01:50More than 300 of which happened last year.

01:54For Nicole and her team the onslaught is demoralising.

01:58You know we just kind of end that call, start another call

02:01and it kind of just becomes sort of commonplace really

02:04which is not nice but as we're just trying to do our job

02:07it's just like oh we've come to expect it I think.

02:10The ambulance service say they offer extensive support

02:14to staff impacted by abuse

02:17as well as preparing frontline workers

02:20with conflict resolution training

02:23as well as body cams.

02:25But with harassment being increasingly felt

02:29both on the scene and down the phone

02:32an end to this level of abuse is still uncertain.

02:37Oliver, Leader of the Sacks for KMTV in Gillingham.