A member of the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) has spoken about an attack from a patient, which left him physically injured and fearing for his life.
The EMAS medic, who wished to remain anonymous, told This is Scunthorpe that he was called to a flat in Gainsborough following anemergency call concerning a male patient, suffering abdominal pain. ‘He punched and kicked me and chased me around his flat and down the corridor,’ commented the EMAS paramedic. ‘He was being violent and aggressive and physically abusive until we got away from him– I thought what if he had kicked me down the stairs? I thought I was going to die.’
The paramedic and his colleague then returned to the ambulance and called to police following the attack, in which the EMAS medic suffered trauma to his jaw and wrist. ‘It's made me more fearful to return to work and attend incidents but when I did return to work, I got a lot of support from my paramedic team leaders who have done a fantastic job,’ added the medic. ‘I've settled back into work OK but I always think it's going to happen again.’
Statistics released by EMAS show a rise in the number of violent attacks against staff in the last 12 months. The attack was among the 70 reported in 2011-12, compared with 58 attacks recorded in 2010-11 and 69 attacks in 2009-10.
Security management specialist for EMAS, Nick Arnold, told This is Scunthorpe: ‘We've made it clear we will not tolerate violence or abuse against our staff. ‘We have a strong reputation for successfully prosecuting people who think nothing of assaulting our staff and we will continue to do so. ‘We are very pleased that this man is serving a prison sentence for his crime and hope this sends out a strong message to others.’
