Record assaults on emergency workers

MORE THAN 60 AMBULANCE WORKERS ARE ATTACKED OR ABUSED EVERY DAY

- By RICHARD AULT

RECORD numbers of emergency workers were assaulted while saving lives last year as ambulance staff reveal more than 60 NHS heroes are attacked or abused every day.

Last year, more than 22,500 ambulance workers reported incidents including kicking, punching, slapping, headbutting, spitting, verbal abuse and sexual assault, as well as violent attacks involving a multitude of weapons.

That's an average of 62 ambulance workers reporting some form of violence or abuse every day, or almost three an hour with many frontline emergency workers forced out of their roles due to injury and trauma.

Separate figures show there were 933 similar attacks on firefighters in England last year, causing 129 injuries, while a survey of 766,000 NHS workers found one in seven (14%) had reported being physically attacked.

In the year ending September 2025, police forces in England and Wales recorded 4,377 assaults, the highest on record since attacking an emergency worker who was not a member of the police became a separate offence in November 2018.

That includes 147 assaults in Birmingham, more than in any other council area, 94 in Northampton, 84 in Manchester, 79 in Sheffield, and 76 in County Durham. But many more are likely to go unreported.

According to crime rates, the most dangerous place to respond to a 999 emergency last year was Middlesbrough