By Jenny Suo
St John ambulance staff are concerned over the increasing number of their officers being assaulted on duty.
Since 2004, the number of reported assaults a year has more than trebled.
It is the beginning of another night in South Auckland for two ambulance officers, preparing themselves for anything they may meet throughout the night.
Paramedic Mike Hill knows exactly what can happen.
“We were called to an incident involving a gentleman in Howick with a large quantity of drugs and alcohol,” says Mr Hill.
“[He was] a bit resistant but he agreed to come through to hospital and then on the way he initially made an attempt to assault my partner, so he was restrained and then he head butted me in the face.”
Mr Hill has been working as a St John paramedic for 16 years. He has been assaulted three times, and sadly he is not alone.
There were 54 reported assaults against St John officers in the 2009/2010 financial year.
Thirty-seven of those were in the northern region, only two were in central and 11 were in the northern region of the South Island.
This year has already seen 46 assaults around the country.
That is almost three times the number of assaults reported for a 12-month period just seven years ago.
Not included in those statistics is an incident on Friday night when a hammer was thrown through a rapid response team driver's window followed by a rock through the front windscreen. The driver was hit in the nose.
The disturbing violent trend is a concern for managers.
“We're an organisation out there to help the community and our staff are there to help the sick and injured, it’s disappointing that our staff get abused verbally [and] physically,” says Auckland duty operations manager, Andy Gummer.
Officers believe it's a social change that's escalated attacks
“Most of the incidents tend to be fuelled by drugs or alcohol or both, and because there appears to be little accountability now, there’s an attitude out there that you can do what ever you want and get away with it,” says Mr Hill.
St John treats and transports more than 420,000 patients a year. Although officers say most people treat them with respect, there are others who need to understand that they are just trying to help.
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