British paramedics should not have to worry about being attacked while selflessly helping people in need
IT’S hard enough for most people to imagine doing a job based entirely on selflessly helping those in need.
And it’s even harder to imagine worrying each day that you are going to get attacked while doing it. But that is the reality for British paramedics at the moment.
This week saw the shocking announcement that there were more than 1,000 incidents relating to violence and aggression against South Western Ambulance Service (SWAS) staff last year.
As a result, they will be given self-defence lessons because over-stretched police can no longer respond quickly enough to their calls.
No doubt lots of people will be quick to blame the lack of police for this.
But that would be scratching the wrong itch.
The problem is not the police’s failure to respond to the increase in incidents, but that these attacks are happening in the first place.
Surely it is no coincidence that three different think tanks warned this week that NHS staff shortages could triple in a decade.
Analysis by the King’s Fund, the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust suggests the NHS could be short of more than 350,000 staff if it continues to lose workers and cannot attract enough from abroad.
Of course, there are multiple reasons — not least the uncertainty around Brexit — for this prediction.
But when part of the job description increasingly includes “risk of assault”, is it any wonder that working in the NHS is a less and less appealing prospect?
Where has the respect gone in this country?
Whether people are stabbing each other in the street or putting notes on ambulances telling them to “F*** off” for parking in front of their driveway, there is a terrifying lack of respect for others.
Over the past few years society has changed. We have become an angry nation with no respect for others.
We don’t value each other enough, and we certainly don’t respect the jobs people do.
As a nation we no longer have empathy for people. Somehow we have given birth to a “me me me” culture.
These changes strike me as particularly acute following Remembrance Sunday, when we paid tribute to a generation who were fighting for survival.
The very idea that someone from that generation would have attacked an NHS worker or stabbed someone in the street is unimaginable.
I’d love to be able to put a positive spin on this but the truth is that it is really depressing.
Sure, it might be true there aren’t enough police on the streets. But that is not the problem here.
Over the past few years society has changed. We have become an angry nation with no respect for others
Karren Brady
After all, we don’t live in a police state and we shouldn’t need to be monitored 24 hours a day to ensure safety for our ambulance workers.
This problem is now so extreme that a new law was passed this year doubling the maximum sentence for an assault on workers including police, paramedics, firefighters, prison officers, search and rescue personnel and custody officers.
The Assaults On Emergency Workers (Offences) Act means offenders could now be jailed for 12 months, up from the previous maximum of six months, as the law aims to crack down on the “national scandal” of abuse.
The big question, of course, is: Will this be an adequate deterrent? It is not just about deterrents though.
If we want to live in a society where we feel safe, we all have to take responsibility for that.
We need to talk to our kids and have respect for others. And in the absence of the right values being instilled at home, societal values are something that should be actively taught in schools.
We all need to start taking responsibility for ourselves.
Too many people think nothing of getting so drunk they are insensible — and more likely to attack the paramedics who have come to clean up their mess.
Those people need to look in the mirror.
On a grass roots levels, everyone — children and adults alike — should be encouraged to do some volunteering to get back in touch with their community, and to take responsibility for their part in it. The brutal truth is that it’s in all of our interests to fix this problem.
Because, let’s face it, it will be no laughing matter when we realise we don’t have enough NHS staff to help us when we need it.
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