Paramedics across NSW are being trained to sedate aggressive patients with drugs as the extent of the violence being faced by our emergency service personnel is revealed. A parliamentary inquiry into violence against emergency services last week published the state government’s submission, which revealed ‘chemical restraint’ would be available to all ambulance officers across the state by December this year. The submission also revealed the extent of violent attacks against NSW Police, Ambulance officers, Firefighters and SES workers. The drastic new method for ambos uses a sedation drug to calm violent and aggressive patients, which had previously only been available to a select few specially trained paramedics at each station.
