Body cams for paramedics in Wales after attack spike

Paramedics could soon wear body cameras after a spike in ambulance staff being attacked.

Ambulance staff have been assaulted more than 500 times in the past five years.

The Welsh Ambulance Service said last winter saw an increase in abuse as the number of 999 calls went up.

Director of operations Richard Lee said staff were met with "difficult scenes" as response times got worse and support was being offered for stress.

He told a health scrutiny committee meeting in Flintshire the ambulance trust did see more assaults on its staff as the service struggled to get to emergency calls on time as demand went up.

"When it's taken us longer to attend patients, our ambulance crews can come across difficult scenes when they arrive, including patients and relations who are agitated," he said.

"We do see more assaults on our staff as demand increases."

Five health boards in Wales already use the body cameras to record attacks and abuse towards hospital staff in a bid to deter violent behaviour - with security staff wearing them.

But Mr Lee said the ambulance service was now looking at bringing them in and had put a "host of welfare support" in place to help staff deal with stress.

"Sometimes being a paramedic can be the most joyful job when you're delivering babies and saving lives, but some days it can also be intensely heartbreaking and tragic," he added.

Paramedic Nathan Holman, the GMB Union's branch secretary for the Welsh Ambulance Service, said the move would help to improve safety and increase prosecutions.

He said: "It's definitely an extra safety mechanism as otherwise it tends to be when you're in the back of an ambulance on your own that you get threatened and whoever's driving might not necessarily notice.

"Also, looking at it from the perspective of disciplinary processes, if someone is accused of saying or doing something it's beneficial that those rumours can be quashed quickly if they're false."

A new law to give harsher punishments to people who attack or sexually assault emergency workers is on its way to being brought in, having passed a major hurdle by getting the backing of the UK government.

Rhondda Labour MP Chris Bryant's private member's bill would double the maximum sentence for assaults against 999 staff.