No plans to make Nottinghamshire ambulance staff use body cameras

The cameras are already being rolled out across the national NHS for ambulance crews, as part of a plan to reduce attacks on staff.

Footage from the cameras can be used to support criminal prosecutions.

But currently every ambulance service gives staff the choice of not wearing the cameras, Richard Henderson, EMAS chief executive, told the latest EMAS board meeting.

EMAS covers Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, as well as Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire.

Under the rollout, medics can wear cameras on their uniform and press a button to start recording, if patients or the public become aggressive or abusive.

A similar system is already widely used by police officers.

However, a “small number of people” working for EMAS have chosen not to use the cameras while on shift, while EMAS ambulances already have their own CCTV cameras on board.

Nichola Bramhall, EMAS quality improvement and patient safety director , said body-worn cameras are not “the answer to all of our prayers”.

In November Ms Bramhall reported there had been a reduction in incidents of violence against staff, but the number of violent incidents increased again in December.

She said the increase was “probably not unexpected given the levels of performance we were delivering at that point in time”.

She said: “Body-worn cameras will help us in prosecuting when a violent incident has happened, it will have limited impact preventing that.

“Let’s not get too focused on body-worn cameras as the panacea for reducing violence and aggression incidents.

“What’s important is we arm our staff with skills to de-escalate to keep themselves safe. I am against mandating this at this point in time.”

Mike Naylor, EMAS finance director, said: “We’ve got body-worn cameras available for every member of staff now.

“We have been highlighting incidents where they would’ve been helpful for prosecution.

“The take up is variable. At some stations, it is very good. Some people just don’t like them for whatever reason.”

Ben Holdaway, EMAS operations director, said: “If you roll back 10-15 years, we had exactly the same when people didn’t want to carry radios around as they felt we were tracking them.

“It’s that cultural shift, we’ve got to work it through.”