In May last year, paramedics Andrea Jones and Iain Pearson were called out to help a man who had been seen, rather worse for wear, outside the Repertory Theatre in Stoke.
Devlin Sharpe, who&apos;d been drinking all day, was placed into the back of the ambulance as the West Midlands Ambulance staff assessed his condition.
You would think the 27-year-old would have been grateful for the medical attention. But if that was the case, he had a funny way of showing it.
Sharpe assaulted Ms Jones by grabbing her wrist and, when Mr Pearson tried to intervene, he received a punch in the face for his troubles.
This sort of incident is sadly all too common. In 2016/17, West Midlands Ambulance Service recorded 362 physical assaults on its staff – an increase of 64 on the previous year. Forty-nine of these assaults happened in Staffordshire.
As was the case with Sharpe, alcohol and/or drugs were influencing factors in more than two-thirds of cases.
It’s probably unsurprising that attacks on police officers are even more common. Between April and June of this year, 138 Staffordshire Police officers were injured in the line of duty.
Sharpe, of Myott Avenue, Newcastle who had attacked a 14-year-old boy days earlier, was eventually jailed for 10 weeks after admitting three counts of assault.
But members of the emergency services could soon receive improved protection from attack in the form of stiffer punishment for offenders – if a private member&apos;s bill currently making its way through Parliament becomes law.
Labour MP Chris Bryant’s bill would double the maximum sentence for assaults on police officers, paramedics, firefighters and other on-duty emergency workers from six months to 12 months.
The bill, which has received the backing of the Government, recently passed its second reading in the Commons.
Mr Bryant told MPs: “An assault on anyone is wrong, but an attack on any emergency worker – whether that is a police constable, a paramedic, an ambulance driver, an accident and emergency doctor or nurse, a fire officer, a prison officer, someone working in search and rescue, or someone working on a lifeboat – is an attack on us all. And when we are all attacked, we all stand firm together.
“It is not just that many of these people show daily acts of bravery; they put their lives on the line.
"We know that here in Parliament, where PC Keith Palmer was murdered earlier this year. We owe him a phenomenal debt of gratitude. London knows it. A brave British Transport police officer was stabbed when he faced the London Bridge attackers with nothing but a baton earlier this year.
“The whole country knows it, too, as we have seen horrific instances, week after week, of emergency staff who have been stabbed, strangled, bitten, repeatedly punched, kicked when down on the ground, and threatened with knives and acid. It is incomprehensible that people should attack our national heroes like this.
As well as doubling the maximum sentence for assaults on emergency workers, the bill would also allow judges to consider the fact that a victim is an emergency worker as an aggravating factor in a number of other violent offences.
And offenders who have exposed emergency workers to the risk of infection by spitting at or biting them would be required to provide a blood sample. Refusing to provide a sample without good reason could become an offence.
Fiona Bruce, Conservative MP for Congleton, was among those who spoke in support of the bill.
She said: “I am delighted to support this bill. A few months ago, the all-party group on alcohol harm, which I chair, published The Frontline Battle: An Inquiry into the Impact of Alcohol on Emergency Services. It is a catalogue of attacks on police, fire, ambulance and hospital staff.
“Throughout our inquiry, we heard countless firsthand accounts of the physical and emotional challenges for emergency service personnel of responding day in, day out, to alcohol-fuelled incidents. It is completely unacceptable that every 13 seconds a police officer is assaulted in the line of duty.
“It is unacceptable that medical staff have TVs thrown at them, or that an A&E consultant is kicked in the face. Assaults on people who work in these crucial areas should not be without consequence.
The bill has also been welcomed by the emergency services in Staffordshire.
A spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service said: “We welcome any legislation that will strengthen the protection afforded to our staff. It is completely unacceptable that ambulance staff, who are responding to help people in their hour of need, should have to face violence or verbal abuse.
“Any type of assault against our staff will not be tolerated and we will push for the toughest possible sentence against these people.