The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives expects to report more than 20,000 incidents across the fourteen UK ambulance services in the 2024-25 financial year.
New data from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) has shown that UK ambulance services are on course for the highest rate of reported incidents of violence, aggression and abuse ever recorded in the sector. More than 20,000 incidents are expected across the fourteen UK ambulance services in the 2024-25 financial year.
“This unacceptable behaviour has a major long-term impact on the health and wellbeing of ambulance people who are simply trying to do their jobs and help save lives,” says Jason Killens, AACE chair and chief executive of the Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust.
This means that every single day, at least 55 ambulance staff will be abused or attacked, with reported incidents including kicking, punching, slapping, head-butting, spitting, verbal abuse and sexual assault, ranging from common assault to significant serious attacks involving a multitude of weapons.
On top of this, the AACE says, many assaults go unreported, so the true figure is actually higher.
Based upon the current rate of increase, AACE expects to see over 5,000 incidents reported between the key winter months of December, January and February, with over 2,000 expected in December 2024 alone, the focal month for Christmas and New Year celebrations where alcohol use tends to be more prevalent than usual.
“It is shocking to hear that frontline ambulance staff face unprecedented levels of violence, abuse and aggression, whilst they are trying to help people in the most urgent of circumstances. No one should go to work worrying that they could be attacked or put in harm’s way,” says Rosie Benneyworth, chief executive of the Health Services Safety Investigations Body.