New figures reveal that Scottish ambulance staff are attacked or abused almost daily, highlighting a troubling trend in emergency services.
Glasgow: It’s pretty alarming to hear that ambulance staff in Scotland have been facing attacks or verbal abuse nearly every day. The latest stats from the Scottish Ambulance Service show that 346 employees were targeted over the past year, which is an 11% jump from the year before.
Breaking it down, 146 of those incidents happened in the west, 132 in the east, and 59 in the north. The types of abuse range from spitting and punching to threats with bottles. Verbal abuse has really shot up, increasing by 30%!
One call handler, Declan Cowie, shared a scary experience he had. He was just doing his job when a patient got really upset because he wasn’t getting an ambulance. The caller yelled at him, even threatening to find him. That’s just not right!
Michael Dickson, the chief executive of SAS, made it clear that this kind of behavior is unacceptable. He emphasized that their staff should be able to do their jobs without fear of being attacked. It’s a tough job as it is, and they don’t deserve to be treated like that.
He also mentioned that these incidents can have lasting effects on the staff, sometimes even pushing them to leave the service. They’re working with Police Scotland to tackle this issue and hold those responsible accountable.
