Scottish ambulance staff attacked or verbally abused almost once a day over last year, figures show

Ambulance staff were targeted in physical or verbal attacks almost once a day over the last year, according to Scottish Ambulance Service statistics.

From October 2023 to September 2024, 346 service employees experienced abuse – an increase of 11% over the previous year.

The figures show that 146 staff were attacked in the west region, 132 in the east and 59 in the north.

Incidents involved spitting, punching and threatening staff with bottles or other weapons. Verbal assaults saw the biggest increase over the previous year, rising by 30%.

SAS West Ambulance Control Centre call handler Declan Cowie was left scared after a patient threatened him over the phone.

He said: “It was a really busy day and there was a queue of calls all day due to the pressure on the service. I received a call from a patient who I triaged through our system and the advice was to have them contact their GP or NHS24.

“The caller wasn’t happy that he was not getting an ambulance and proceeded to shout at me over the phone. He said if he died or anything happened to him that I would be to blame, he called me horrible and derogatory names that attacked both my character and identity and he also threatened that he would find out where I was based and come find me. It was a really scary and upsetting call.”

SAS chief executive Michael Dickson added: “Our staff are having to deal with incidents nearly every single day and no form of abuse will be tolerated. They have the right to carry out their work helping patients and saving lives without fear of assault or abuse.

“We also strongly condemn the abuse our hardworking call handlers face on a daily basis. We understand calling 999 can be a stressful time during emergencies, but abusing our staff is totally unacceptable.

“Physical and verbal assaults can have a significant and lasting impact on our people, sometimes even leading them to leave the ambulance service. We will continue to work with Police Scotland to take action against perpetrators, which includes those who abuse our 999 staff.”