Ongoing aggressive behaviour towards paramedics has been slammed by Ambulance Tasmania and the union for health workers.
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Ambulance Tasmania chief executive Neil Kirby deemed an assault on a paramedic early last week by a patient “reprehensible”.
The paramedic was verbally abused and struck in the face by the patient while assessing them in the South.
“Police are now dealing with that matter, and thankfully, while the paramedic was shaken by the incident, he was not seriously injured,” he said. Mr Kirby said last year there were on average about three incidents of aggression or assault aimed at paramedics and ambulance officers monthly in Tasmania, with about one a month occurring in the North.
“We have to get the message through that the job of paramedics and ambulance officers is to save lives, and they can't do that if they are being threatened or assaulted,” he said.
Health and Community Services Union state secretary Tim Jacobson said paramedics were so used to abuse they often considered incidents not worthy of reporting. He said the union had been informed of four assaults toward paramedics in the last three weeks, mainly in the South.
"It's only when it becomes, in their own mind, a really serious incident, whether it's abuse, or there are occasions where people are spat at, people are seriously abused [cases are reported]," he said.
"It's at that next level down, where it may not be in the paramedic's own mind a serious incident where they're sworn at or whatever, that doesn't go reported …. over time, I think that bar is getting higher and higher in terms of what paramedics are forced to have to tolerate on a daily basis."
Mr Jacobson said communication staff, such as call takers, were often in the “firing line” of abuse.
Ambulance Tasmania commissioned a television advertising campaign to convey “that aggressive behaviour not only threatens the safety of the paramedics, but it also jeopardises the safety of the person needing emergency medical treatment,” Mr Kirby said.
He said he accepted some people found the campaign confronting, but believed everyone accepted its importance.
“While it is too early to assess the overall impact of this campaign, certainly during the busy festive season, Ambulance Tasmania saw very few incidents … that is a trend we want to see continue.”