NHS staff attacks in the North East go unpunished

Jan 19 2010 by Helen Rae, The Journal

The 'patient' who punched me in the face

PARAMEDIC Craig Hay was punched in the face while attending a 999 call.

Craig, who works at Consett Ambulance Station, responded to a call with a colleague, which came from a phone box at Leadgate in Consett for a male with chest pain.

The 41-year-old said: “When we arrived, there was no-one at the phone box but there was a lone man walking down the road nearby.

“We drove up to the man and asked if he was the 999 caller. The man turned around and started swearing saying that I should know if he was the man or not. The man was very drunk and after taking advice we advised the man to go home and sober up.”

Around 45 minutes later, Craig and his colleague were called to the same location – only to be – confronted with the same man, who said he wanted to go to the hospital for a health check. “I asked if he had a specific illness or problems and the man just responded in an aggressive way,” said Craig.

“He got even more aggressive, shouting and swearing so I turned away from him and he punched me right in the face.”

It was Craig’s colleague who acted fast and alerted the ambulance control room when she saw that the patient was causing trouble. The police quickly got to the scene but had also caught the incident on CCTV.

The man was arrested, pleaded guilty to assault and was given an anti-social behaviour order. He was told not to call 999 unless it was for a real life-threatening emergency.