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. While in the East, there have been 123 incidents of physical or verbal abuse and in the North there have been 27 this year.