VIOLENT attacks on NHS staff will not be tolerated, hospital trust bosses have warned.

New figures show more than a quarter of NHS staff at East Lancashire Hospitals experienced bullying, harassment or abuse from patients last year.

And one in eight said they had experienced physical violence from patients, relatives or members of the public.

Meanwhile, one in five NHS staff at the Lancashire Care Foundation Trust experienced physical violence from patients last year.

The Government has announced new measures to better protect health service staff in England, calling for a "zero tolerance" approach.

Responses to the latest NHS Staff Survey show that 27 per cent of workers at the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said they had experienced bullying, harassment or abuse from patients, relatives or members of the public in 2017.

A further 21 per cent said they had been verbally abused or harassed by a fellow member of staff.

Around 3,380 employees responded to the survey, which also asked workers about incidents of physical violence at work.

John Bannister, director of operations for ELHT, said: “All NHS workers have a right to be safe at work whether they are based in hospitals, in the community or other healthcare premises and the vast majority of interactions between staff and members of the public are positive and cordial.

“East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust believes that any abuse towards our staff – physical or verbal – is totally unacceptable.

"We are committed to responding appropriately to such behaviour and direct action is taken to protect our staff, patients and visitors.

“We encourage staff to report all and any abuse.

"Last year, a number of assaults were reported to the police which resulted in custodial sentences and other individuals were issued with warning letters following incidents of harassment or abuse.

“We provide support and specific training for staff where incidents are highest.

"This ensures they are properly equipped to deal with high risk patients and challenging behaviour.

“We welcome the new Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offenders) Act 2018 which becomes law this month.

"The act gives assurances that convicted offenders will receive a prison sentence up to 12 months, a fine, or both.”

A LCFT spokesman added: "Last year in particular was very challenging for our employees, and saw an extremely high demand for services and a rise in violence on our mental health wards, which was linked to an increasing number of people in our specialist services who are very ill and in distress.

"All of our employees are encouraged to report all violent incidents so that we can ensure that all our services are as safe as possible, understand risk and improve safety.

"We have processes in place to support staff when they have been subject to an incident and have been working proactively together to reduce violent incidents.

"This is one of our main quality priorities and we have been doing detailed work to ensure that we are implementing evidence based practice which has included looking at the root cause of violent incidents, to understand the trigger points so that we can make changes within practice to reduce the number of incidents.

"We also work closely with the police to take action against those causing violence on our wards where this is not related to a service users clinical presentation."

Healthcare workers union Unison said that anyone threatening or abusing NHS staff "should be prosecuted".

Almost 10 per cent of workers at LCFT said they had experienced physical violence from patients, relatives or members of the public in 2017.

Around 500 employees responded to the survey, which also asked staff whether they had experienced bullying, harassment or abuse at work.

More than a quarter of respondents at LCFT said they had been verbally abused by patients or members of the public.

And nearly a quarter said they had been bullied or harassed by a fellow member of staff.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has introduced the first NHS Violence Reduction Strategy, a series of measures designed to safeguard NHS workers against deliberate attacks and abuse.

Mr Hancock said it was "unacceptable" health workers had been subjected to violence and aggression.

The Department for Health and Social Care said that the NHS was partnering with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute offenders quickly under a "zero-tolerance" approach.

The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act doubles the maximum prison sentence for assaulting an emergency worker from six months to a year.

England-wide, 15 per cent of NHS employees experienced violence in 2017, the highest figure for five years.