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The figures represent a nine per cent increase from the previous year. The assaults, which included kicking, slapping, spitting, biting, head-butting, and verbal abuse, ranged from common assault to serious premeditated attacks involving grievous bodily harm. Nine incidents involved a weapon.
Cardiff recorded one of the highest rates of assaults in the first six months of the year, with 1.15 per 1,000 population. Jason Killens, chief executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: "Ambulance crews are there to help people, but they can’t fight for someone’s life if they’re fighting for their own.
"The run-up to Christmas means more people are out enjoying the revelry, and with alcohol consumption comes an increase in assaults, both physical and verbal. "Our ask is simple – emergency workers want to help you, so please treat them with respect and work with us, not against us." Emergency ambulance practitioners Ian Jones and Gareth Casey were assaulted by a patient in Burry Port in June, before she urinated in the back of their ambulance.
Mr Jones said: "It was the first and only time I’ve pressed the ‘panic strip’ in the ambulance so that everything could be recorded on CCTV. "We called the police, who arrived within minutes, but in the meantime, she threatened to urinate in the back of the ambulance. "Unfortunately, she made good on that threat.
" Mr Casey, who used to work in security prior to joining the ambulance service, said he has been assaulted more times in this job than in his previous. "The punches didn’t hurt – it was her threats to kill which shocked me more. "Unfortunately, this wasn’t my first assault at work.
"As emergency workers, we should be able to go to work and come home unscathed. "I’ve come to expect it now, but it doesn’t mean it’s right." The With Us, Not Against Us campaign was launched in May 2021 by the Joint Emergency Service Group in Wales to try and reduce the number of assaults on emergency workers.
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