The hospital may soon be forced to issue helmets and protective vests to its emergency staff, the department's head said yesterday.

"We are facing harassment and intimidation of emergency medical technicians who go out on ambulance calls ... to the point where we have genuine concerns for their safety,'' Dr. Edward Schultz, director of emergency services at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital told Hamilton Rotarians.

Dr. Schultz said his department became worried anytime an ambulance had to go to a "high risk incident'' such as an assault or a road traffic incident in "certain parts of our community.'' "We know there is going to be a crowd there, and we know that often that crowd is going to be violent and aggressive and our emergency medical technicians have to go into that crowd.

"I find it quite amazing that the very people who are going out risking their lives on the ambulance to help people in distress, have to worry about injury themselves.'' As a result of the serious and often life-threatening injuries some victims display, emergency medical technicians are taking further training in advanced trauma life support.

And it has recently been made mandatory for the hospital's doctors to have the same expertise.

Dr. Schultz said the profile of a violent person was usually male, between 15 and 40 years old with a history of alcohol abuse. They were also from a disadvantaged social and educational background with poor family support. They also blame others for their problems, he said.

Consequently, the hospital has increased security. There are at least two or three guards roving about the hospital at any given time and certain areas such as the intensive care unit, the emergency department and the clinical records department, are off limits to the public.

"We've had to lock doors that were never locked,'' Dr. Schultz continued.

"We've had to lock our hospital down to the public and that is very sad.'' Furthermore, video cameras and a police panic button have also been installed although this does not solve the problem entirely because many patients, often under the influence of drugs such as alcohol, will attack doctors and nurses.

To cope with this, Dr. Schultz said sedatives and physical restraints are used so that the patient can be assessed.

"These measures are expensive and it impacts on the care that we provide to patients.

"I think it is a sad commentary on our community that we have to go to these measures but I think the measures reflect where we stand,'' he said.