A paramedic assaulted by a patient he was trying to help has said ambulance crews face almost daily abuse.
Shaun Tierney, 39, from Grimsargh, near Preston, was assaulted after being called to the Yates's Wine Lodge, in Church Street, Preston.
Mr Tierney, who has been in the ambulance service for 18 years, had helped 47-year-old Heather Bamber from the
pub's toilets into the ambulance at around 5pm on Friday, May 29.
But once inside she became verbally abusive and then began hitting him on his arm, before landing a punch to his genitals.
Bamber, of The Straits, Hoghton, Preston, denied a charge of common assault but was found guilty at Preston Magistrates Court and given 60 hours of community service.
She also had to pay £100 compensation to the ambulance crew member and £300 in court costs.
Mr Tierney claimed this was not an isolated case.
He said: "She was verbally abusive for 15 minutes, then hit me repeatedly on the arm then finally a punch to the genitals.
"Unfortunately, we do get a lot of verbal abuse.
"We get to the point where we do tolerate more than we should do, it is that common.
"With this lady I am guilty of tolerating too much.
"It is frustrating because we are trying to do our job, which is delivering a vital emergency service, and we are getting abuse from people who should know better."
Mr Tierney claims incidents such as this have led to paramedics leaving the profession.
He said: "This was a grown middle-aged lady, it is frustrating.
"It happened to be an experienced member of staff not a student, you get some not staying on.
"It can have dire consequences.
"There is not a day goes by when we do not suffer verbal, if not physical, abuse."
Mr Tierney believes the majority of patients are fine with paramedic staff, but the level of abuse affects staff morale.
He said: "We are always a bit concerned about what we can be faced with and you have to risk assess everything.
"Ourselves, the fire brigade and the police are suffering more abuse. We have a job to do, but there is an increased risk these days. We have had people leave the service because it affects us.
"It increases sickness and you end up with vans not being able to move.
"There was an ambulance off the road for three hours while we made statements to the police."
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