The South Island emergency medical dispatcher spoke to the Otago Daily Times amid a rise in hostility aimed at emergency services this summer. Hato Hone St John Southland and Otago District operations manager David Milne said the rise in abuse came as people had been "overindulging" in the holiday period and abusing staff. "It can be quite disheartening and quite deflating really, when all you want to do is help people." Mr Milne said the number of reported incidents of abuse had been increasing. Last year, there were eight physical assaults on frontline staff, two sexual harassment incidents and eight verbal abuse incidents,but abuse incidents were often under-reported, so there were likely more that had happened, Mr Milne said.

Source: Otago Daily Times January 09, 2026 15:36 UTC