PHYSICAL assaults against ambulance staff have nearly doubled in the space of a year, shock figures reveal.

In the West Mercia area, which includes Worcestershire, there were 57 physical assaults recorded against West Midlands Ambulance staff between April last year and March this year - compared to just 30 in the same period the year before.

The ambulance service is extremely concerned about the rise and is calling for an end to the 'sickening' abuse suffered by its staff.

The figures are from the service's 'Violence and Aggression Report' for 2015/16, which shows the situation is being repeated in nearly all areas the service covers - although the biggest rise in violence has been seen in West Mercia.

Coventry and Warwickshire showed an increase of 23 assaults and the Black Country an increase of 19.

The only exceptions were Birmingham (-5) and Staffordshire (-1).

Verbal assaults also increased across the region - from 386 in 2014/15 to 466 in 2015/16 - although the number fell in West Mercia, from 71 in 2014/15 to 70 in 2015/16.

Of the 231 physical assaults for 2014/15, 100 of those were not taken forward for criminal prosecution. For the remaining 131 physical assaults the ambulance trust has been successful in obtaining 49 criminal prosecutions.

Of the 294 physical assaults reported in 2015/16 139 have been taken forward for criminal prosecution and, so far, the trust has secured 49 criminal prosecutions.

During 2015/16 the trust issued 40 advisory warning letters to members of the public who have been reported for either physically or verbally assaulting trust staff.

To date the trust has received four communications from the recipients of those letters while three offered verbal apologies.

Examples of abuse included a female student paramedic who was punched in the arm by a drunk woman.

Paramedic Mike Duggan said: "It is disgusting that any ambulance staff, who come to work purely to help people, are subjected to this level of violence."

"I'VE LOST COUNT OF THE NUMBER OF TIMES I'VE BEEN ABUSED, SAYS PARAMEDIC"

A WORCESTER paramedic says he has been punched and spat at as ambulance staff face increasing violence and verbal abuse.

Andy Allsopp, a paramedic area support officer based at the Hub in Spetchley Road, Worcester, says he and colleagues face abuse on average twice a week and that the situation is 'getting worse'.

The 29-year-old, who has worked for the West Midlands Ambulance Service for the last decade, says he has received so much abuse, often from people under the influence of drink or drugs, that he cannot count the times.

During one of the more shocking incidents, around two years ago in Leamington Spa, he was punched three times in the arm by a man who said he was a former GP. The attack left him suffering bruising and pain.

Mr Allsopp, a father-of-one, was responding to an emergency call regarding the welfare of a man.

But when he and a colleague made enquiries they discovered the man was fine and did not need any help, telling them 'I'm okay'.

But the man who had made the call, who was under the influence of alcohol, refused to accept this explanation, and challenged Mr Allsopp.

He said he was a GP and insisted Mr Allsopp had a duty of care for the man and insisted he take the patient to hospital in the ambulance.

Mr Allsopp said: "I said 'do you mind asking me what your relationship is to the gentleman' and he said 'I don't know him from Adam but I used to be a GP and I know you have a duty of care'."

He first pushed Mr Allsopp against the ambulance and then punched him three times to the shoulder although the paramedic was able to react to his blows to avoid more serious injury.

Mr Allsopp said staff were trained in conflict management and he managed to manoeuvre his attacker out of the way and push the emergency button on his radio which opened a line to the Emergency Operation Centre.

Police attended and Mr Allsopp's attacker, who had by now stumbled off, was arrested.

In court the defendant was ordered to pay Mr Allsopp £50 in compensation.

Mr Allsopp said: "I think the main thing is I don't really understand it. You can't understand why people want to inflict pain, injury or verbal abuse towards people who are just simply trying to help."

He believes that because the ambulance service are receiving more and more calls the staff are increasingly susceptible to abuse and said the public seemed 'more confident' about carrying it out.

However, he stressed that the chief executive of the ambulance service and the service itself had a zero tolerance attitude and would pursue prosecutions against people who abused the staff in its 'family'.

Mr Allsopp described the pro-active response of managers to abuse as 'refreshing' and said many members of staff had experienced it and so understood what it was like and could support one another.

Describing another incident, Mr Allsopp said he had been spat at which required him to have blood tests to see if he had contracted any blood-borne diseases.

He has also been grabbed or scratched with finger nails more times than he can count he said.

"Each individual in the service is exposed to abuse around twice weekly, verbal or physical. The verbal abuse has gone sky high. I think some of the staff are exposed to it so much they grow a thick skin" he said.