Paramedics save lives. And it is shocking they must put their own lives and wellbeing at risk to do it.
Today the Sunday People reveals how crew members are attacked or abused once every HOUR.
The number of assaults has almost doubled in five years.
Unite boss Sharon Graham says the Tory neglect of our vital public services over 12 years is behind these appalling figures.
There are fewer police to act as backup and protect crews. Mental health care has deteriorated.
And emergency patients frustrated by slow ambulance times lash out verbally.
It is a tribute to the courage and dedication of paramedics that they see it as all part of the job and carry on regardless.
While we applaud them for that can-do attitude we are disgusted that this violence is allowed to go on seemingly unchecked.
It is not as if the penalties for assaulting emergency workers are not harsh – two years’ jail should be an adequate deterrent.
But ambulance chiefs say these stiff punishments are not being applied frequently enough.
That is a message which must get through to judges.
And the message to Rishi Sunak must be to pull his finger out and sort the wider problems in the NHS and social care.
That means more mental health beds, faster hospital discharges to reduce ambulance waits, and more call handlers to cut response times.
Some of that is in train. But not enough to make the difference our paramedics deserve.
We know there are many calls on the public purse.
But as Mr Sunak mulls his Budget later this month he must make this a priority.
Matt's such a prat
We knew Matt Hancock was a disgrace before he shamed himself again by abandoning his constituents and Parliamentary duties for the Australian jungle.
Allowing himself to be filmed breaking lockdown rules by canoodling with his mistress showed he was not just a disgrace but a klutz.
Tory colleague Nadine Dorries famously munched her way through bits of an ostrich’s bottom when she was in the jungle.
We hope Matt does not butt out of that challenge either.
