Ambulance staff face sexual abuse 'almost daily'

London Ambulance crews and call handlers have said they face sexual abuse almost every day while helping patients.

This includes sexual threats, groping, indecent exposure, explicit comments and sexual violence.

Almost a third of emergency phone operators have experienced sexual harassment, while paramedics face physical sexual abuse on top of the inappropriate comments made "almost daily", the London Ambulance Service (LAS) said.

Paramedic Gosha Graf said she was assessing a patient when he groped her and then refused further care. When she read his notes, she discovered that he had sexually assaulted another paramedic earlier that day after also refusing treatment.

She called the police and the man was jailed for 18 weeks for sexual assault in March this year.

Graf said: "I was trying to help him when he grabbed me and I remember thinking, 'Why does anyone have to put up with this just for doing their job?'

"But what made it worse was finding out he had already done something similar to another paramedic that day.

"This is not harmless behaviour and it should not be brushed off.

"This man called 999 to abuse us."

Staff reported 462 incidents in the 12 months from July 2025 to July 2026:

• Almost two-thirds of women working on ambulances said they had experienced unwanted sexual behaviour from patients, service users, relatives or other members of the public in the previous 12 months
• More than one in five frontline ambulance colleagues who reported unwanted sexual behaviour in the NHS Staff Survey said it had happened at least three times during the year

Swear words, explicit language and threatening behaviour are all seen in the LAS campaign 'We show up. Show some respect'.

A video using ambulance CCTV and body-worn camera footage captured sexualised comments and inappropriate touching crews experienced while trying to help patients, sometimes while they are actually in the ambulance.

Chief executive of LAS, Jason Killens, said: "This disgusting behaviour disrupts emergency care, can take ambulance crews off the road and our call handlers away from their station, which may delay help reaching other patients. It has to stop.

"If you see such behaviour, call it out. If you are asked to give evidence by police after an incident, your testimony might help ensure the perpetrators face the consequences of their actions.

"This is not part of the job and we will never treat it as such."

Chief paramedic Pauline Cranmer said: "We come to work to help others. To respond with sexual abuse is a shocking betrayal.

"We will not accept it, excuse it or allow offenders to believe they can target our people without consequence."

Earlier this year, the law was strengthened to protect women from sex-based harassment.

A man was jailed for three months for harassing London paramedic Ella Johnson in the Metropolitan Police's first conviction under the new law.

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