Police cuts blamed for 999 attacks

Paramedics are being subjected to a rising tide of vicious assaults caused by cuts to policing, it has been claimed.

Bosses at the North West Ambulance Service last week held a crunch meeting with unions and control room staff after a recent string of sickening attacks.

Among them was a 26-year-old trainee paramedic in Leyland, Lancashire, who was last month allegedly attacked with a baseball bat, causing a fractured skull.

Days later paramedic Qasam Pervez was beaten unconscious in the back of his vehicle by thug Akinwunmi Akinyuwa who was so drunk he could not remember the attack in Salford.

Meanwhile new figures show a 44 per cent increase in reports of attacks on ambulance staff in one year.

Paramedic Mike Oliver, Cumbria and Lancashire convenor for the North West Ambulance Service Unison branch, said: “Ambulance staff are experiencing violence and aggression on a more regular basis.

“We have noticed an increase in not only the number of incidents but also of the severity.

“Our members provide first class clinical care sometimes in hostile and emotional circumstances. For them to suffer verbal or physical assault is unacceptable.”

The meeting, which took place at headquarters in Bolton last week, focused on key areas for improvement.

It followed new statistics released by the trust which showed between April 1 and October 31, 2012, there there were 153 reports of attacks but over the same period this year there were 221 reports.

The trust said it had changed the way it records incidents to make it easier for staff to come forward.

But Mr Oliver claims staff are now at greater risk because police are so stretched they are often unable to provide back-up for paramedics.

He said: “Government cuts have seen police resources reduced and this has left ambulance staff at times vulnerable, especially when responding to addresses where staff have experienced violence and aggression in the past.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “Decisions on how and when police assist other emergency services are an operational matter for forces.

“Recorded crime has fallen more than 10 per cent since the last election. Like all parts of the public sector, the police must play their part in helping to tackle the deficit but they will still have the resources to do their important work.”

North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust Director of Operations, Derek Cartwright, said: “It is totally unacceptable that violence is directed towards our staff. The Trust does not tolerate abusive behaviour of any kind.

“The Trust fully supports staff who become victims of assault and encourages them to report it to the police .”