The dossier reveals at least two alleged suicide attempts by female victims of bullying at South East Coast Ambulance trust, while a third allegedly contemplated crashing her car in order to escape the abuse.

Several claimed they were left under such pressure they could not concentrate on emergency calls, impairing their responses to the public.

The trust’s response times for “life-threatening” calls are the worst in the country, after secret policies to “stop the clock” and falsely record responses were uncovered.

The leaked documents describe a culture of “favouritism and nepotism” at the trust’s operations centre, in Coxheath, Kent, with more concern about “targets and figures than patient care”.

Female emergency call handlers were allegedly attacked as “f------ c----”, while those approaching 40 were told “the oldies have to go in the end”, the documents state.