The Transport Workers' Union will meet with government to protect frontline workers from violence

They have no choice but to attend to the patient, intensive care paramedic and union delegate Kieran Hitchenson said.

There are around a dozen other troubled or violent people who are known to ambos.

They say they have no choice but to rock up, using valuable resources, and attend to these patients.

Mr Hitchenson has been working as an intensive care paramedic for more than 25 years and says it's time for the government to step in and protect workers from violent patients.

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This includes drug addicts.

"We're not talking about illicit, illegal drug users, they're actually quite easy to deal with," he said

"It's the patients that have chosen or found the need to access prescribed medications in an easier way.

"We've got a saying within ambulance, that pain is what the patient says it is.

"So if a patient says they have pain, we have to provide pain relief, whether or not in our assessment we believe that we're doing something detrimental."

Paramedics are calling for a system to stop them having to attend to violent people, Mr Hitchenson said.

"We've got violent patients that we know are going to be violent, we know are going to be abusive, but at the moment we have no mechanism to not put ourselves in that occupational violence situation," he said.

Transport Workers Union official Ben Sweaney said the union would be meeting with the government to talk about mechanisms to protect paramedics.

They're proposing alternate care pathways for people that are regularly abusive to ambos and waste their resources.

"It's up to the government about what they decide to propose but they have a range of alternate care pathway [options]," Mr Sweaney said.

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A spokesperson from the ACT government said it was disappointing to see ambulance staff around the country being subjected to verbal and physical violence while doing their jobs to protect the community.

They said the ACT Emergency Services Agency will establish a working group with the union and paramedics to dive into the issue and ensure their programs are effective and accessible.

"These include preventative training, processes to manage dangerous situations such as waiting until a scene is safe or requesting police assistance, and access to a range of other support services," a government spokesperson said.

Mr Hitchenson said he had been sexually assaulted, punched, kicked and had equipment thrown at him while on the job.

"You think that it's part of the job but it's really not," he said.

"The sexual assault ... came out of nowhere, and [despite] 25 years of experience, I didn't see that coming. I see most things coming, but I didn't see that coming.

"And when you've got junior staff that haven't got the experience that I do, they haven't developed that gut instinct yet, they're more susceptible to workplace violence and injury, both physical and mental."

Mr Hitchenson also acts as a volunteer peer-support person for his colleagues.

He said the union has had to fight for volunteers to receive sessions with a psychologist.

The union wants the ACT Ambulance Agency to be devolved from the ACT Emergency Services Agency, accusing the Commissioner of running a "dictatorship".

It is calling for a new roster which will reduce the current 14-hour night shifts down to a 10-hour night shift.

Mr Hitchinson said there are "massive fatigue issues".

"As an intensive care paramedic, when I'm coming to the end of my 14-hour night shift, I'm expected to make high-end clinical decisions which is extremely difficult under fatigue," he said.

"That puts the community at risk, because of my fatigue and inability to think."

Emergency Services Minister Mick Gentleman has committed to changing the roster.

"The new roster will include a one-night shift pattern, reducing pressure and disruption on paramedics, and helping them to perform at their best," he said.

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