A NEW England ambo says paramedics are facing appalling treatment on call-outs and have been forced to call in police for back-up when attending certain addresses.
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Ambos have declared some addresses in the state no-go zones with rising concerns around violence directed towards the service’s workers.
New England paramedics’ association delegate Scott Clarke said it was an issue likely faced in most towns and Tamworth was no exception.
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“Where there’s issues where we perceive there to be a threat, we have the ability to flag a particular address through the police, whereby if we get future calls, we will not respond without police back-up,” Mr Clarke said.
“It’s not just in Tamworth, it's probably across Australia and it’s representative of a societal probably, namely with alcohol and increasing amphetamine and drug use.”
He said the Australian Paramedics Association welcomed the recent support from the state government and NSW Ambulance backing workers who chose not to enter into situations they perceived as unsafe.
Association state secretary Steve Pearce has been a paramedic for nearly 30 years and he said the level of threats were at an all time high.
“I've never seen it worse than this,” he said.
“It’s self-evident we can’t be with police all the time, so I’d certainly like to see some work go into some other strategies we could use.”
He said “situational awareness” training and the addition of body cameras had been suggested.