“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it in 30 years of emergency work,” Ambulance Victoria regional director of operations Vanessa Gorman told media on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“And it’s probably worse in regards to the severity of what’s occurring. I don’t think there’s one of us standing in front of you today that has not been assaulted.”<\/p>\n
![\"Vanessa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/86989cd0c259e93034fa9e6abe0286fd.jpeg\")
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Vanessa Gorman says paramedics are subject to increasing levels of violence. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
In a three-day window over Christmas there were 10 “very serious offences” committed against paramedics that had prompted Ambulance Victoria to speak out, she said.<\/p>\n
These incidents included a female paramedic being touched multiple times inappropriately, paramedics being punched in the chest, spat on and even having a stethoscope used against them as a weapon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Also paramedics had to abandon an ambulance while a patient caused damage to its interior, she said.<\/p>\n
“Enough is enough. This is unacceptable and we will not tolerate it,” Ms Gorman said.<\/p>\n
“Please, in the community, treat our paramedics with respect, kindness and grace, not only in this period but through 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n
“It is never OK to assault, verbally or physically, an emergency services worker. We’re pleading for your help to protect our paramedics this season.”<\/p>\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/f0acb7b9e1df605335a207de72ebaac8.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The recent assaults have frustrated Ambulance Victoria against a backdrop of increasing risk for their staff. (ABC News: Seraphine Charpentier Andre)<\/p>\n
Ambulance Victoria’s Andrew Burns said it was generally understood violent incidents increased against emergency services personnel over the festive period.<\/p>\n
He said it was concerning to see a “consistent trend in increasing these patterns of occupational violence”.<\/p>\n
“Obviously not everyone is enjoying time with their family. It is a time when we do see deterioration in behaviour. We see an escalation in risk-taking behaviour, alcohol consumption and illicit drug use,” he said.<\/p>\n
Ambulance Victoria chief executive Jordan Emery said the violence was not being perpetrated solely by patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cFar too often, alcohol is a factor. And far too often the violence is the result of bystanders or family members who are interfering with the care those paramedics are trying to provide,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the paramedics reportedly assaulted, Luke Harrington, described how a man cornered him against his ambulance just before his shift ended at midnight in Melbourne’s east on December 22.<\/p>\n
He was threatened and spat on before the man began smashing the ambulance window and attempted to jump on the vehicle and block its exit.<\/p>\n
![\"Paramedic](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2457064cc81890771cc54f20bf240fad.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Paramedic Luke Harrington was threatened by a man and spat on while on the job in the lead up to Christmas. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Mr Harrington, who also dealt with a similar incident 18 months ago, said the job now required a constant state of “hypervigilance”.<\/p>\n
“[You’re] constantly wondering if there’s a stranger or a patient that could escalate in that moment,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It adds an element of pressure to an already stressful job and vulnerability as well.<\/p>\n
“We don’t have security. We don’t have protective equipment, and until the police get there it’s really just a matter of de-escalating and luck.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ambulance Victoria is pleading with the public to treat paramedics with respect after a reported increase in violent…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":479111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63284,12937,4740,50,89407,8515,8572],"class_list":{"0":"post-479110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-ambulance","9":"tag-assaults","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-paramedics","13":"tag-victoria","14":"tag-violence"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115806343303856708","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}