Frequent attacks on ambulances are stopping paramedics from being able to do their jobs, health authorities have warned.
More than 200 incidents of vandalism were reported between 2015 and October this year, according to a freedom of information (FOI) request by the BBC.
In London, “one of the 26 logged instances involved a microwave being thrown at an ambulance”, The Daily Telegraph reports.
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In another example highlighted by the BBC, a crew from the North East Ambulance Service was taking a patient to Scotland in November last year when a bottle was thrown through the passenger window.
Student paramedic Tony Traynor, who was driving the ambulance, was forced to make an emergency stop and suffered bruising and scratches. He told the broadcaster: “I’m normally quite robust, I’ve been in the Army, but you’re not expecting something like that to happen to you in that sort of environment.
“I’ve never been upset in this job but this has really affected me, it’s had a greater impact on me than I thought it would. It’s really sad and sickening that someone could do something like this. We were on blue lights and sirens so it was obvious we were travelling on an emergency.”
Every NHS ambulance trust in the UK was approached for responses in the FOI request, and all 14 except the Northern Ireland branch handed over their data. The figures show that the West Midlands was the worst-affected area, with 36 incidents, followed by Yorkshire with 29, London with 26 and the Northwest with 24.
Responding to the findings, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “It’s absolutely unacceptable for anyone to deliberately damage emergency service vehicles or other essential kit.
“They are consciously inhibiting the ability of our enormously hardworking and dedicated paramedics to do their jobs, and it risks taking ambulances off the road.”
The managing director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, Martin Flaherty, added that vandalism “takes valuable resources off the road that could be out responding to sick and injured patients”.
“We would always press for all perpetrators found guilty of such acts to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” he warned.
