Paramedics are regularly kicked, headbutted and spat at, a shocking Sunday People investigation has found.
On average, crew members were abused or assaulted more than once every hour last year.
We also found physical and verbal attacks on ambulance workers have soared 65% in five years.
Some 9,522 reports were recorded by nine of England’s 11 ambulance trusts last year – up from 5,773 in 2017.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, said: “The scale of the abuse and attacks is abhorrent.”
Paramedics told us slow ambulance response times were fuelling verbal abuse, while a growing mental health crisis was behind soaring violence.
And they said the problem has been made worse by Tory cuts to policing, because back-up is no longer always available.
Crew members at South Central Ambulance Service have reported being kicked, punched, headbutted, bitten, scratched, slapped and spat at, all while trying to save lives.
Some reported being sexually assaulted while others had missiles hurled at them.
North East Ambulance Service had recorded injuries to every part of the body, including broken limbs – with one crew member even being choked.
Meanwhile, a worker in the East Midlands suffered such a bad head injury he was left concussed.
And on the Isle of Wight, a catalogue of horrific incidents saw one crew member being bitten on the arm, kicked in the abdomen and ribs and punched in the head.
Another had a jug of urine thrown at them, one was hit by a heavy backpack hurled by the patient’s partner and another had her breast grabbed.
Kelvin Hurd, who has been a paramedic for more than 20 years, says violence has become part of the job.
The 51-year-old said: “I don’t know a colleague who hasn’t been threatened or assaulted.
"I’ve been punched, I’ve been bitten, I’ve been kicked, I’ve walked into situations where there are knives… it’s so common, the incidents just blur.
“It’s part of the job. I hate to say that and to sound so blasé about it because it shouldn’t be like it, but that’s just how it is for us.”
Our Freedom of Information request to ambulance trusts also revealed more than 2,500 homes in England have been flagged as danger zones.
Some are no-go areas where crews must not attend without police back-up. And some require crews to make a risk assessment before going in.
Kelvin said: “Society is struggling and there are a lot of people at their wits’ end, making bad choices with drugs and alcohol.
"These are people who are in crisis. It’s not personal. They are lashing out and you are the nearest thing.
“Sometimes people are struggling because the help they need has been removed. They are frustrated.”
Kelvin added: “The other problem is people waiting a long time for us to arrive. Families can get quite verbal.
“We need hospitals to discharge patients so we spend less time there waiting to hand over patients.
“The longest I’ve waited to hand over a patient is nine hours. The norm is between one and three.
"You start a shift and get sent to someone who says, ‘I’ve been waiting five hours for you’, and you have to diffuse a situation you haven’t created.”
Figures last week showed paramedics in England cannot respond to an average of 117,000 urgent 999 calls every month because they are stuck outside hospitals with patients.
The GMB union campaigned for a law to make assaulting emergency services workers illegal – and it came into place in 2018.
The law also doubled the maximum penalty of six months in jail for common assault, which was doubled again to two years in June.
But Adam Hopper, from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, says the powers are not being used enough – and called on judges to consistently hand out the toughest sentences.
Rachel Harrison, GMB national secretary, said: “We fought hard to change the law around attacks on emergency workers but it’s not enough. We need a zero-tolerance approach.”
Ms Graham, reacting to our findings, said: “The Sunday Mirror investigation regarding the sort of injuries suffered by ambulance workers just doing their jobs is staggering. The scale of the abuse and physical attacks is abhorrent.
"And remember these workers are among those who risked their lives day to day going to their work during the pandemic. But now the Westminster Government is literally adding insult to injury by offering what amounts to another load of abuse - a derisory pay offer which actually amounts to a pay cut. So the government is treating these workers as though they are worth nothing, compounding the abuse they suffer in their jobs."
And Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said it was “a total disgrace” that staff have to put up with violence and abuse.
“Long ambulance waits are the fault of the Conservative government, not NHS workers,” he said.
Meanwhile, 18,000 ambulance workers are being balloted on a strike over a 4% pay offer.
A Government spokesman said: “Deliberate violence or abuse directed at NHS staff is unacceptable.
“We’re recruiting more 999 and 111 call handlers, creating the equivalent of at least 7,000 more beds and investing £500 million to free-up hospital beds by moving patients into social care.
“We are also investing more than any government in history to expand and transform mental health services.”
