IN response to your article about violence and abuse directed at front-line ambulance staff (May 24), I was concerned to see there was no mention of the abuse directed at others within the ambulance service.

For instance, I work in the A&E control room where we handle 999 calls from the public. While most callers are polite, we do receive quite a high level of verbal abuse from people requiring our assistance.

I accept that if a person is in a state of panic he or she may become impatient and forget their manners but often the abuse comes from those who have been drinking.

This is not physical, but verbal abuse can have a detrimental affect on staff, who after all, are doing their best to provide a vital emergency service.

Bev Richards,

Duty deployment manager,

TENYAS A&E Control,

Shipton Road, York.

Updated: 09:41 Friday, May 27, 2005