Emergency workers at the East of England Ambulance Service face rising levels of attacks as more than 1,000 incidents were recorded in 2023.

In 2023, 1,455 incidents of attacks on staff were recorded.

Of those 1,455, 362 were physical assaults, 522 were verbal in nature and 571 were instances of non-physical abuse, such as aggressive gestures and intimidating behaviour towards staff.

In response, the East of England Ambulance Service Trust has set up a new campaign to help protect staff from increasing levels of violence and aggression.

The Your Safety, Our Priority campaign focuses on what staff can do themselves to safeguard from physical, verbal or emotional harm, and how the Trust will support them if they suffer abuse.

The campaign features a range of resources aimed at keeping staff safe, including case studies, videos, guidance packs and online Q&A sessions.

It also highlights the importance of using body-worn cameras whilst on the job. They have to be activated by the ambulance worker, but they can record footage for use in a later prosecution.

Body-worn cameras were initially piloted in 2022 and are being rolled out across the Trust, and all staff are being encouraged to wear them for their own protection.

Alistair Livingstone, a Health, Safety and Security Specialist at the Trust, said: "We see too many incidents where our colleagues are attacked – either physically or verbally – when they are there doing their job in difficult circumstances to help people in their time of need."

He described it as "completely unacceptable".

Mr Livingstone added: " In the coming months we're introducing a new training programme for our people to recognise and assess the risk of potentially dangerous situations, and how to get away to safety.

"We're driving forward the delivery and use of body-worn cameras, which are invaluable for staff if something happens."

He said that the Trust is reviewing how it manages internal reports of violence, and how it will support colleagues who go through the process of prosecuting someone who attacked an emergency worker.