Dozens of nurses are being attacked by patients - many high on drink or drugs - who they are treating in hospital wards.

Well over 100 incidents a month are reported at four Oxfordshire hospitals. They include violent, threatening or abusive behaviour.

Between July and September this year, there were 372 cases, including 45 where patients had injured a hospital employee.

Nurses and doctors have been slapped, kicked and pinched by patients, and have needed first aid for their injuries as well as counselling. Now managers are cracking down on the attacks by threatening to take court action against offenders.

Many cases involve a disturbed or distressed patient lashing out unexpectedly, but there are also incidents of angry patients, some of whom may have been drinking or taking drugs before they arrived at hospital, attacking and verbally abusing staff.

Mary Burrows, assistant director of risk management at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "Hospitals should be safe places and purposely bad behaviour will not be tolerated.

"I don't think staff should have to come to work thinking they might get hit - it's not what healthcare is about. "We are taking a strong line to make the public aware of their responsibilities.

"It is pretty distressing to be caring for someone who then thumps you."

Staff under attack call security guards who usually rush to the scene within five minutes, although they are not based on individual wards.

A review of hospital security is currently being carried out.

Reports of attacks have now reached a consistently high level, with staff encouraged to report it rather than simply regard abuse or aggression as 'just part of the job'. A new ruling has been issued to cover the John Radcliffe, Radcliffe Infirmary, the Churchill and Horton hospitals, telling staff that hospitals will not tolerate patients making trouble.

Court action will be threatened and a firm statement detailing this will appear on posters throughout the hospitals telling patients that violence will not be tolerated.

Staff will also be given extra training to help them cope with difficult patients.

Story date: Tuesday 26 October

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