Emergency workers attacked ‘every 30 hours’
New Department of Justice figures show ambulance, hospital, garda, and fire brigade staff suffer physical abuse every day despite the essential support they give to those in need.
According to figures, 1,551 incidents were reported by frontline workers between Jan 2006 and Dec 2011.
The worst rate occurred in 2011, the most-up-to-date information available, when 309 people tasked with providing life-saving help were attacked by members of the public — the equivalent of an assault every 30 hours.
The figures, obtained by trade newspaper the Medical Independent, also show that 281 attacks on staff such as ambulance personnel, prison officers, gardaí, fire fighters, and anyone giving medical assistance in a hospital occurred in 2009; 248 in 2010; and 309 in 2011.
However, the rate is believed to be far higher as sources have warned many cases go unreported.
While the Department of Justice said the figures are “provisional”, as it takes time for cases to pass through the courts, the details also show only a small percentage of the most recent cases lead to convictions.
In 2009, 98 of the 281 cases ended in convictions, falling to 87 in 2010, and 69 in 2011.
The HSE is creating new approaches for the management of aggression and violence in the workplace, which will form part of a national policy document being developed.
As part of this process, 497 unit managers were surveyed by the HSE on risk assessment and control measures, as well as the training for managing violence and aggression.
Violence against healthcare staff has been flagged as a problem for almost a decade, with ambulance personnel and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation repeatedly raising the issue as a major cause of concern to them.
A 2008 study by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland found firefighter paramedics are facing daily abuse while doing their jobs, while a recent Irish Examiner report highlighted how ambulance crew have been punched, head-butted, and threatened with guns in the past three years.
Last year, a Fianna Fáil Dáil motion calling for a minimum five-year jail sentence for anyone convicted of assaulting or threatening the life of a front-line emergency worker was defeated by the Government.
