MINUTES after answering a 999 call ambulance worker Thomas Patterson found himself in front of his patient, a big man slumped in a chair.

It was a routine situation that turned into a horror story. The dormant patient burst into life and leapt at him with an axe.

Somehow Mr Patterson escaped the man's Chester-le-Street home unhurt.

It is one of a growing number of attacks on ambulance workers which has led Unison North-East branch secretary Ray McDermott to call for a change in law to protect NHS staff.

His argument - that the problem is getting out of hand - is backed by the statistics.

Yesterday, it was revealed that since the turn of this year there has been 353 incidents of abuse on ambulance staff in the region, 48 of them involved physical assault.

That has caused Mr McDermott to call for a change in law whereby anyone assaulting an NHS worker would automatically be prosecuted instead of waiting for the victim to make a complaint.

He also wants magistrates to get tough. The union official blames a lack of respect for authority and an increase in drug and alcohol use for the increase in violence.

But for Mr Patterson and his permanent work partner of more than ten years, paramedic Pamela Ingham, serious physical abuse has become almost an everyday part of the job.

"I had to take six weeks off work," said Mrs Ingham, recalling one of the attacks that has led her to become a counsellor for fellow staff.

"I had been bitten by a man in handcuffs just the week before but thought I was all right.

Then there was this young man sitting there and I approached him.

"A ten-inch blade shot out of his sleeve and I just couldn't handle it.

"It's not the physical side, but the mental stress. You're never the same again."

Management and workers have got together to establish a counselling scheme.

A spokesman for the Ambulance Service Association agreed the problem had worsened and said anti-knife wounding jackets have already been issued to staff in London. North-East NHS bosses said the problem was being taken extremely seriously.