Hands off: Ambos fed up with violent confrontations
It’s a shocking scene too many people will find familiar.
An ambulance officer works frantically to assess and treat and injured reveler but the situation gets out of control when worried friends arrive on the scene.
Before the ambulance officer knows it, he’s trying to ward of an aggressive member of the public instead of treating his patient.
It is a scene that is repeated far too often around the country and the subject of a new campaign by South Australia’s heath department designed to protect ambulance officers from violent confrontations.
Over the past three years ambulance officers in South Australia have had to deal with a 74 per cent increase in the rate of violent incidents while they are on the job, according to SA Health.
Phil Palmer from the Ambulance Employees Association said ambulance officers often found themselves in emotionally tense situations and said the Hands Off Our Ambos campaign aimed to help the public recognise the risks their behaviour could pose to health professionals and their patients.
“Ambos often have to deal with anxious, intoxicated or deliberately confrontational members of the public, who at times resort to unacceptable behaviour such as spitting, verbal abuse, threats and physical assault,” he said.
“We recognise that it can be a scary time for friends and family members but that is no excuse for verbally or physically abusing those who are just trying to help.
The SA Health advertisement aims to mirror the sort of video that often appears after dramatic events late at night.
Shaky and shot in a vertical aspect, with poor lighting, the video shows a young man lying on the ground bleeding as a screaming girlfriend and a distraught friend try to understand what happened.
Emotions boil over though and within seconds the ambulance officer is defending himself instead of caring for the hurt patient.
