PARAMEDICS will be given police-style body cameras in a bid to reduce violent attacks.

The plans, announced by health secretary Jeremy Hunt, will see 465 ambulances and their paramedic teams equipped with the cameras, which have already been rolled out across police forces.

It follows similar calls by nurses for the NHS to give them body cameras to deter and record violence against them.

Figures show there were 222 assaults on East Lancashire Hospitals Trust (ELHT) staff in 2016/17, an increase of 19.35 per cent from 186 in 2015/16.

The figure for Lancashire Care was 1,711 last year, compared to 1,651 the previous year.

North West Ambulance Service recorded 418 attacks on its staff in 2016/17, 25 more than the 393 in 2015/16.

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust saw the biggest rise at 62 per cent, with 365 assaults on NHS staff in 2016/17 compared to 137 in 2015/16.

The data, from 181 of the NHS’s 244 hospital trusts, was obtained by the Health Service Journal on behalf of the union Unison under the Freedom of Information Act.

Nationally, there were 56,435 physical assaults on NHS staff in 2016/17, up 9.7 per cent from 51,447 the year before.