** Assaults on UK ambulance staff dizzingly high
UNITED KINGDOM NEWS
** The past twelve months have seen 2 out of every five West Midlands paramedics attacked by patients or patients’ relatives. That is the word from The Express and Star (Pete Madeley/October 1) which quoted from an NHS report on the problem. The report derived the stats from voluntary staff surveys and information provided by individual ambulance trusts. According to the newspaper, West Midlands has seen 171 attacks on practitioners since April. From January 2017 to the present, the number is 410. The South West Ambulance Service Trust, by comparison, said 28 per cent of staff had been subjected to assaults while on the job. NHS report overseer Lord Carter of Coles said the number of attacks could be even higher since NHS Protect was abolished. NHS Protect maintained nationally recorded stats on staff assaults.
