'Zero tolerance' for attacks on Ambulance Service staff as crews attacked on Eleventh Night

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service has told UTV the 'Eleventh Night' was one of the most violent on record for crews.

Eleven paramedics were attacked in the space of six hours while responding to separate 999 calls at four different locations.

Two of the attacks occured at bonfires.

The most serious was in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim were five Ambulance Service staff were punched, kicked, bitten and spat at. Threats were also made to their lives.

Other crews came under attack in the Fortriver area of Belfast, Belfast city centre and in the Ballymacash area of Lisburn.

"Nobody leaves their home to come out to do a job to expect that to happen," Rosie Byrne, director of operations at the Ambulance Service said.

"Eleven staff over a six-hour period on one night is the most significant number I can recall in all my time in the Ambulance Service."

The attacks and threats to life come at a time when the service has seen a rise in staff absence due to stress and other mental health struggles caused by work pressures.

Ms Byrne continued: "We stood down some of our staff at the time after the assaults for their wellbeing, but obviously that impacts on the cover we have to respond to 999 calls.

"We had good cover in relation to the number of crews we had on overnight, but obviously we lose some of that capacity if staff are stood down from their work for a period of time."

According to the Ambulance Service, there were 652 assaults on staff last year.

It is not just physical injuries - attacks can leave staff suffering from mental health issues, and absence due to mental health is becoming an increasing problem for NIAS.

There were 112,000 work hours lost last year, a 50% increase on the year before.

Norman Cunningham from the union UNITE said: "This is a horrendous situation that people go out to help and end up injured themselves, people are going off sick because of this.

"People are retiring because of what they're subjected to, when they go off there's less people available to respond, less ambulances on the road.

"Then you can't respond to the general community."

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