An increase in attacks on London’s emergency services was revealed today as police and paramedics said spitting, punching and kicking were becoming commonplace.
Attacks on Met police officers have risen about 13 per cent over 12 months to 5,606 – following a 25 per cent hike in the previous year.
London Ambulance Service staff suffer about 500 physical attacks a year and more than 800 cases of verbal abuse and threats.
A male paramedic almost lost sight in an eye after being violently attacked several week ago. He was hospitalised and off work for three weeks.
The scale of the problem emerged today as the Awesome Movement campaign encouraging greater public appreciation for 999 staff was launched. A Londonwide bus tour of hospitals, police and fire stations distributed free coffee, doughnuts and sandwich vouchers to uniformed staff.
PC Deniz Jaffer, 46, was attacked in June after being called to the Royal London hospital, Whitechapel, to a patient who was aggressive to NHS staff.
“He had HIV and TB and a cut at his mouth,” PC Jaffer said. “He tried to transfer his blood to me to pass on HIV. We did have a ‘bit of a roll around’ and he clamped his teeth on my arm. He bit very hard and did break the skin.”
PC Jaffer had to wait until two weeks ago for the results of a blood test to come back negative. The man is being prosecuted. PC Jaffer, a former banker, said: “It’s such a common occurrence now it’s not surprising when it happens. I have been assaulted four times in the year I have been here.”
PC Agata Broniszewska, 24, was kicked and punched by a man she and two colleagues were trying to apprehend in Oxford Street. “Spitting happens so often,” she said. “It’s the most disrespectful thing that can happen.”
Inspector Finbar King, 39, said: “What has changed massively is that people are more inclined to put ‘hands on’ rather than just give us verbal abuse.
“The potential is higher for them to kick and spit. I would rather get kicked or punched than spat at. I have been bitten by dogs several times and by humans three or four times.”
LAS paramedic Caitlin Fiddler, 22, told how a patient spat in her face and told her to “fuck off” when she was trying to treat his head injury last December.
“I was really demoralised,” she said. “It set me back a little bit. It was my first encounter with somebody who was really aggressive to me. It made me much more cautious around patients for a long time. I didn’t have such a ‘hands on’ approach.”
Paramedic Thomas Martin, 29, tried to restrain a patient high on drugs who became violent to a woman member of the public. The man punched him and spat in his face. The incident happened in Tottenham in February.
A second incident two weeks later in Blackhorse Lane saw Mr Martin come under attack from an uninsured driver involved in a car crash. The man became agitated when police found drugs in the car.
“He became so aggressive that he punched me in the face and kicked me in the chest,” Mr Martin said. “Me and a police office tried to restrain him with handcuffs. I had to hold his hand across his chest. When I did that he bit me on the arm, causing me to bleed.
“I carried on treating the patient. We took him to hospital. It took six police officers to restrain him on the [ambulance] bed because he was being so aggressive. At the hospital they scanned him. They found he had no injuries.”
The Met figures, for the 12 months to the end of last month, surpasses the 4,973 in the 2018/19 financial year.
There were 346 physical assaults on LAS medics in the first eight months of this year and 499 verbal attacks.
The London Fire Brigade reported 91 attacks on firefighters last year.
LAS chief executive Garrett Emmerson said 25-30 people a year were convicted of assaulting LAS staff.“Over the course of a year we will lose 260 days of staff sickness for staff who have been physically attacked,” he said. “That is more than 100 ambulance shifts that we can’t put out on the road.”
London businessman Michael Howard, who founded Awesome Movement after being outraged at abusive notes being left on emergency vehicles, has spent about £50,000 on the “thank you” gestures.
He withdrew £1,000 from the bank in crisp £10 notes and placed these on envelopes on ambulance windscreens, alongside a thank you note. When he was told it was best not to pass cash directly to emergency workers, he bought Pret vouchers instead.
He has also visited schools and collected notes written by children thanking 999 workers. These are then handed in to police stations and hospitals. Some police have been reduced to tears by the messages, he said.
“These guys are doing an amazing job in difficult circumstances,” he said. “These guys are heroes.
“The Awesome Movement is celebrating the heroes of our emergency services who are there for us in our times of need. They do a difficult, stressful job sometimes in the face of personal danger, violence, and verbal abuse.
“They are awesome and they deserve our thanks. We hope people will join us in showing their appreciation however they can – whether it’s a note of gratitude on the windscreen of their vehicle or just stopping them in the street to say ‘thank you’.”