'Sickening' medic attack figures.Byline: Alison Dayani MORE than a third of Midland paramedics have been violently attacked or hurled verbal abuse verbal abuse Psychology A form of emotional abuse consisting of the use of abusive and demeaning language with a spouse, child, or elder, often by a caregiver or other person in a position of power. See Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Spousal abuse. while trying to help injured patients on 999 calls over the past year. West Midlands Ambulance Service The West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust is the authority responsible for providing NHS ambulance services in Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, Warwickshire, West Midlands, and Worcestershire in the West Midlands region. revealed that as many as four in every ten staff had complained of attacks. All staff are set to get special conflict training to tackle difficult patients in the coming year following the appalling findings. Sir Graham Meldrum, Ambulance Service chairman, said: "Sadly, the year brought disheartening news and the figures speak for themselves with 27 per cent of staff saying they had experienced violence from patients and 38 per cent suffering verbal harassment from patients. "I find it sickening that staff should have to put up with such abuse. We'll do everything we can to bring the full weight of the law to bear on anyone who abuses staff. "Although all staff will receive conflict resolution training, at the end of the day, they shouldn't need it." The past year has brought extra pressures from problems including swine flu swine flu n. A highly contagious form of human influenza caused by a filterable virus identical or related to a virus formerly isolated from infected swine. , response times for emergency calls lower than Government targets and even recording the worst times in the country over the summer. A difficult winter and Christmas also saw paramedics working during their own time. |
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