AMBULANCES will be installed with CCTV amid increasing physical and verbal attacks on paramedics.

South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) has agreed to begin using CCTV on its vehicles.

The systems, which records images but not sound, are expected to come into operation in the coming weeks.

The trust hopes the technology will improve staff safety and reduce verbal and physical abuse of ambulance staff in the line of duty.

It will also aid crime prevention, investigation of road traffic collisions and the prosecution of offenders – and could help solve infrequent cases of ambulance theft.

In May The Argus reported three ambulance workers a week were attacked, verbally abused or threatened in the line of duty with incidents on the rise.

SECAmb figures showed ambulance workers suffered 55 physical assaults in the 2012/13 financial year and 120 were threatened or verbal abused.

In November last year a female paramedic was left with a fractured jaw after being kicked and punched in the face as she was called to the aid of an unconscious woman in St Leonards.

Ambulances in Merseyside and Cheshire were among some of the first in the country to be fitted with CCTV technology with £100,000 of equipment installed in 2004.

Discussions between unions and SECAmb have been ongoing for more than a year with many of the trust’s ambulances and single response vehicles are already CCTV enabled in preparation of a decision being reached.

The footage will be encrypted and password protected so it can only be viewed by those with appropriate authority to do so. A decision was agreed at a meeting on Friday.

SECAmb head of fleet Justin Wand said: “We have been working with our unions to ensure we have a policy that protects staff and patients. CCTV fitted on vehicles ready to be switched on will come into operation in the coming weeks as our vehicles come through their scheduled maintenance. All our staff have the right to work in a safe and secure environment and verbal abuse or physical violence must never be seen as part of the job.”