Last Thursday morning a MICA Paramedic was stabbed in the neck and face in Reservoir outside a café on Broadway. Reports indicate that a bystander intervened, getting the attacker away from the paramedic, who was then able to perform first aid on himself before emergency services arrived.
The paramedic was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries and has since been discharged from the hospital. A 32-year-old man was arrested at a property in Reservoir on the afternoon of the same day and charged with attempted murder.
Last week’s incident is the second to expose a legal loophole in Victorian law.
In 2014 Victoria introduced mandatory minimum six-month jail sentences for anyone convicted of assaulting emergency workers, including paramedics, police, doctors and nurses delivering emergency care, firefighters and prison officers. In 2018, after a series of assaults on paramedics failed to see the minimum sentences applied, the laws were toughened to make it a category-one offence for which a custodial sentence must be imposed, thus removing the option for judges to impose community corrections orders (seen by the judiciary as jail terms served in the community).
However, custodial sentences currently only apply when workers are officially “on duty”, not on their breaks, presenting a legal loophole. In February this year, after hospitalising a female paramedic whom he kicked in the stomach, a man avoided jail on the technicality that she was not actively treating a patient when she was attacked. The ambulance union has since been lobbying the Victorian government to close the loophole.
Danny Hill from the Victorian Ambulance Union said, “We’ve now had two cases where we’ve had paramedics assaulted while they weren’t actually attending to a patient. If they are on shift, they are on duty, and therefore these laws should apply.”
This most recent attack has prompted the Victorian government to announce plans to strengthen the law to make jail mandatory in all circumstances for people who assault emergency services workers, and to seek further clarity around the definition of “on duty” in order to close the existing legal loophole.
Deputy Premier Ben Carroll responded to this incident, saying, “We need to change the laws and make sure this never occurs again.”
Every day, paramedics deal with abuse, aggression, and violence while they are trying to save lives and treat the sick and injured.
Any assault or abuse against paramedics is unacceptable. It’s never Ok.
Please treat our paramedics with respect.
Read more: VAU - MICA Paramedic stabbed and Paramedic stabbed in Reservoir in Melbourne's north - ABC News