THE campaign “keep your hands off our ambos” has continued throughout the community following an assault incident in the region.
Limestone Coast ambulance operations manager Andrew Thomas said all paramedics deserve to be safe when undertaking their role.
Just after 10pm on March 19, police were called to assist two men, who had been assaulted while in the execution of their ambulance service duties at a home in Mount Gambier.
While the two paramedics were not injured, police arrested and charged a 19-year-old Mount Gambier man with aggravated assault.
“All paramedics enjoy their job and enjoy getting out treating people and that’s why they do the job,” Mr Thomas said.
“We want to make our workplace safe for them and we understand medical situations can get people worked up, but turning that against our staff does not help anybody.”
The Keep Your Hands Off Our Ambos campaign was introduced in 2015 after statistics showed there was a steady increase in the incidence of assaults against paramedics.
“The campaign is really about highlighting, as an ambulance service, we are not going to tolerate inappropriate or inexcusable behaviour, both physical and threatening towards our staff,” Mr Thomas said.
Despite incidents still being reported across the state, the ambulance service has seen a decline in the number of assaults and threats against staff members since the campaign began.
“It is great news the public awareness around the campaign has had an impact, but unfortunately events like earlier this month are showing that our staff are still at risk, so we want to continue to get the message across,” Mr Thomas said.
He said the number one priority would always be the safety of their staff and if that is under threat, they are unable to do their job properly.
“We cannot do our job if we have to look after ourselves,” he said.
“When we have members of the public threatening or wanting to cause harm to our staff that is a major concern and it obviously delays us in being able to provide life-saving treatment to people.”
A large number of the incidents are fuelled by drug and alcohol, but Mr Thomas said that is no excuse for any physical or threatening behaviour.
“From an ambulance point of view, we have a zero tolerance when it comes to violence and when it occurs we will follow through with police like we have in the past,” he said.
