Sky News investigates UK's 'worst ambulance service' as patient 'sexually assaulted'.
- Dignity 4Patients
- Apr 28
- 3 min read
By Rachael Venables - Sky News - 28.04.2025 - [ENGLAND] - [Ambulance Service]
A series of troubling allegations are made by staff and patients of the South East Coast Ambulance Service, with national health chiefs saying the claims in Sky News' report are "extremely concerning" and must be dealt with. A grandmother who claims she was sexually assaulted by a private paramedic on the way to the hospital has told Sky News she has been failed by the ambulance service. It's been more than a year since a Sky News investigation first heard of a culture of rampant sexual harassment and abuse in ambulance services.
These issues have existed for decades right across the country.
But now the GMB union, which represents ambulance workers, is calling on the chief executive of SECAmb, Simon Weldon, to resign.
It's after a survey of workers heard high instances of inappropriate behaviour and bullying, with a huge fear of speaking out.
It's led the GMB to call for an independent investigation, with one representative branding the ambulance trust "the worst in the country".
The trust told us it is committed to working with unions for positive change. Juliette, 65, has spent four years trying to get her local ambulance trust to listen. In 2021, she accused a private paramedic working with SECAmb of sexually assaulting her.
Hit by a car while cycling through Surrey, she remembers lying on the stretcher in agony, afraid to move in case she was paralysed. Two paramedics carried out assessments for around 90 minutes before driving her to the hospital.
But as soon as she was alone in the back with just one of them, she claims the male paramedic suddenly told her he wanted to "check her hips".
"There was no asking, no consent," she says. And instead of touching her hips, she claims he sexually assaulted her.
"With his left hand, he opened my shorts up - and put his right hand into my cycling shorts.
"Between my legs." She doesn't want to go into the details, but she says she temporarily froze, powerless and terrified of what he might do. All the while, he stared down into her eyes and said nothing.
"I felt so uncomfortable. Shamed, frightened, shocked. I didn't want it to continue."
She said her brain eventually "snapped into place" and she moved her legs. She claims he then removed his hand and sat behind her head in silence for the rest of the journey.
"I just lay there - terrified," she whispers.
She reported it to the police the following day, but with no CCTV in the ambulance, it was her word against his. With no hope of a successful prosecution, the Met Police dropped the case.
Then she turned her attention to the ambulance service, hopeful it would act. We've seen correspondence between Juliette's lawyers and SECAmb, which promised to respond to the formal complaint within 25 days. That was repeatedly delayed for several months. "It was about seven months after the accident. They still hadn't acknowledged anything to do with the sexual assault," she recalls.
"They hadn't answered any questions."
Eventually, they effectively said the assault hadn't happened, claiming that Juliette herself had started to remove her cycling shorts, and that "consent was given" for an examination after she complained of a pain in her leg.
She unequivocally denies every detail of this account. She says it left her feeling "insulted, betrayed and humiliated".
Why - she asks - would somebody think she had "wasted all this time". "It's too late for me," she adds, but she is making a stand to help others avoid the same trauma.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article and were abused in state-run medical and health facilities, you can contact Dignity4Patients, whose helpline is open Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm.
Dignity4Patients Commentary:- Incidents of sexual misconduct and abuse can occur in various healthcare environments. Allegations of inappropriate behavior must be addressed with seriousness and investigated swiftly by management. When required, immediate actions must be taken to safeguard other patients. Delaying justice is equivalent to denying it. #VictimVoices #TruthMatters #SexualAbuse
