Hounslow Chronicle - 8th January 2009

Sharp Rise in Attacks on West Middlesex Hospital Staff

Nearly 40 staff were assaulted at West Middlesex Hospital last year and health campaigners are calling on the ministers to get tough on the thugs responsible.

A total of 37 employees were attacked at the Isleworth hospital during 2007/8, up from 32 the previous year.

A West Mid spokeswoman said: "We have a zero tolerance policy in regards to physical attacks on our staff.

"In any case where a member of staff is physically attacked we will involve the police. We understand that the environment of the hospital and the circumstances under which people are attending can lead to volatile situations but any kind of physical or verbal aggression towards our staff is completely unacceptable."

The hospital operates a football-style card system under which those responsible for physical assaults on workers automatically receive a red card, while verbal abuse merits a yellow card.

Anyone who sees red will no longer be treated at the West Mid unless they require urgent treatment.Yellow acts as a warning, and those repeating the offence will receive a red and be reported to the police.

Nearly 56,000 health workers across England were physically assaulted last year, according to figures from pressure group Health Emergency.

The alarming statistics emerged just weeks after ambulance chiefs revealed Isleworth-based paramedics are encouraged to wear stab-proof vests after suffering 117 attacks in the last year alone.

John Huggins, ambulance operations manager at the unit in Mogden Lane, blamed the increase in violence on the rising number of alcohol-related call-outs.

He told the Chronicle before Christmas how yobs had set upon one crew member as he travelled home by train in his uniform, while many others have received minor cuts and bruises while trying to do their job.

Health Emergency chairman Geoff Martin called on Labour to honour its 'zero tolerance' pledge made when the party came to power just over a decade ago.

"In 2009 the Government should at last make good on its 'zero tolerance' policy and that means better security, more prosecutions and tougher sentences and penalties for those who treat our NHS staff as verbal and physical punch bags," he said.