Ambulance staff facing less abuse; SUCCESS AS VIOLENT INCIDENTS DROP, BUT SITUATION IS STILL SERIOUS.

Byline: HELEN RAE

VIOLENT assaults on ambulance staff in the North East have fallen in the past year, official figures have shown.

Figures from the NHS show there were 35 assaults on staff in 2008/09, down from 43 in 2007/08.

The decrease is being put down to measures put in place in the emergency control room which help call operators identify potential volatile situations so they are able to advise crews on the most appropriate response.

Alan Gallagher, risk and claims manager for North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) said: "While it is encouraging to see a fall in the figures, the number of reported assaults is a very serious matter.

"It is, however, pleasing to see some success in our attempts to tackle violence against ambulance staff.

"The trust continues to work extremely hard to introduce new initiatives to ensure this downward trend continues.

"Current projects we are working on include the design and roll-out of a more effective method of incident reporting for our staff, which will ultimately improve our reporting of such incidents."

Although there were 35 reported assaults in the past 12 months, only three people were convicted. Ambulance bosses say they want to see more people prosecuted for attacks on their staff.

Paul Liversidge, director of operations for the North East Ambulance Service, said: "It is a sad fact our staff are continuously subjected to verbal and physical assaults in one form or another and we will not tolerate this.

"We encourage our staff to report any violent or abusive incident through our agreed reporting process and the Trust will support and encourage staff to pursue the issue through the correct channels. During their 10-week induction course all A&E staff go through an intensive training course which helps them to deal with abusive and violent patients. We also have measures in place in the control room which help the call operators identify potential volatile situations so they are able to advise the crews on the most appropriate response.

"We also advise and support crews if they attend a call in which they feel vulnerable to leave the scene and wait in their vehicle until the police arrive.

"Our crews should not expect to be threatened or injured when they're called to help injured patients." Joel Byers, the North East Ambulance Service's representative for Unison said: "Unison are pleased to see the violence against front-line staff is reduced, thanks to the hard work done by the trust and the union nationally and locally.

"We would like to see this trend repeated year on year until it's zero."