Editorial: Horrific attack a reminder of dangers faced by our emergency services

Yet another weekend, yet another reprehensible attack on our emergency services, with a paramedic the latest victim.

The ambulance service employee received injuries to the back of her head, neck, face and hands during an assault which was said to have lasted “a number of minutes”. While she will likely recover from the physical injuries, the psychological impact of such an unprovoked and senseless attack is another matter.

This is a paramedic who has served this community for almost four decades, caring for people and saving lives, often in the most challenging circumstances imaginable.

Yet she was seriously assaulted in Londonderry's Altnagelvin hospital. A local MLA who knows her, the SDLP's Sinéad McLaughlin, said she found the incident and the extent of the woman's injuries “deeply upsetting”.

All attacks on emergency workers are unacceptable, whether it's police, fire or ambulance crews, search and rescue services or any other front line worker. It is particularly incomprehensible when staff are attacked when trying to help members of the public in need, and even more shocking when, as in this incident, it happens within a hospital.

Earlier this year, figures released to the DUP MLA Diane Dodds revealed that there were more than 72,000 physical and verbal attacks on health and social care staff in Northern Ireland in the previous five years.

The Upper Bann MLA, and others, want harsher sentences for people involved in such attacks. Sadly, they are reflective of wider societal problems. Violence, drugs and anti-social behaviour plague too many of our towns and cities.

Many of these root problems need dealt with if we are to reduce the risk to our frontline heroes. In the meantime, tougher sentencing would be a start.