Huge Rise In Attacks On Ambulance Crews

ALARMING figures released this week show that attacks on ambulance crews in the East of England have continued to rise over the past four years. A staggering 95 assaults were reported by crews in total during the course of 2008/09 with 15 of those occurri

ALARMING figures released this week show that attacks on ambulance crews in the East of England have continued to rise over the past four years.

A staggering 95 assaults were reported by crews in total during the course of 2008/09 with 15 of those occurring in Cambridgeshire according to the NHS Security Management Service.

The figure represents a 12 per cent rise in reported assaults on the previous year for the service which covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.

Neil Storey from East of England Ambulance said: "The ability of our staff to work safely is paramount and violence against them is unacceptable."

"Unfortunately there are still those few people who obstruct our staff as they try to go about their work."

He added: "We would ask those individuals to think through the potentially tragic consequences of their actions before they assault an ambulance crew.