Self-defence lessons for paramedics because police failing to respond

Paramedics are to be given self-defence lessons because over-stretched police are failing to respond to calls for help, ambulance services say.

Crews are being trained to restrain patients after the head of South Western Ambulance Service said assistance from police had reduced.

At the trust’s latest board meeting, chief executive Ken Wenman said: "Two things had happened which had led the trust to now move to restraint training. One had been that police response to an incident to restrain a member of the public had reduced therefore the risk to staff would be increased.”

The other was the need for staff involved in such situations to know how to assess whether patients had capacity to understand what was going on, he said.

The College of Paramedics states restraint can lawfully be used against patients to prevent harm or injury to others, but says police help should be requested via 999.

Response times by police forces across the South West have been dropping, while the number of attacks on ambulance staff have almost doubled in the last year.

A spokesman for the trust said safe holding would only be used as an absolute last resort.

Unite regional officer Nick Bailey said: "This development has been generated by the drop in police numbers nationally.

"Paramedics are now expected to fill in for that shortfall in police numbers - this is another responsibility our already hard-pressed members will have to absorb into their very busy shifts.”

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesperson, said the police would continue to aid partners such as the ambulance service if and when needed, but welcomed the training, saying the trust had a “responsibility and duty of care towards both their staff and the public.”