29 assaults on ambulance staff in Western region

Galway Bay fm newsroom - There have been 29 assaults on ambulance staff in the western region over the past two years.

Union representatives claim many more assaults aren't being reported.

These new figures have been released by the National Ambulance Service under the Freedom of Information Act.

They show that, in 2018 and 2019, there were 114 assaults against ambulance staff.

70 were physical, 43 were verbal and one was sexual, which relates to a patient exposing themself to a staff member.

But Tina Martin, the co-chairperson of the National Ambulance Service Representative Association, claims the problem is far worse than the statistics suggest.

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