THERE were 110 incidents of staff who work for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust being assaulted last year.

Figures for 2013/14 show there were 110 recorded assaults. Of these, 59 of the assaults occurred when the perpetrator did not know what they were doing or did not know it was wrong due to treatment, medical or mental illness, but in 51 instances there was not a medical factor involved.

There were 13 assaults per 1000 members of staff over the year, according to the figures from NHS Protect. Seven prosecutions were made in connection with the assaults.

A York Hospital spokeswoman said: “Security on the hospital site is a priority for the Trust, and any incident of violence or aggression against our staff is one too many. We aim to provide a safe and secure place for staff, visitors and patients. We have security guards on site 24 hours a day, and the site is covered by CCTV.

“On occasion our security team will be present if a patient is violent or aggressive so that we are able to provide medical treatment to those who require it. In extreme cases treatment arrangements are made for this to be carried out with a police presence.”

Meanwhile, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust – which is responsible for mental health provision in Leeds, York, Selby and parts of North Yorkshire – recorded 1275 assaults.

Of these 1232 involved medical factors where perpetrators did not know what they were doing or that it was wrong and 43 did not. There were about 330 assaults per 1,000 members of staff. In 14 instances, criminal sanctions were secured.

A spokesperson for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said: “The trust takes every incident against staff seriously. We encourage staff to report all incidents and make sure they are trained in how to do this and the appropriate action to take.

“ The majority of incidents reported resulted in either no or low harm to our staff and service users.”

Yorkshire Ambulance Service recorded 110 physical assaults – 11 were medically related and 99 were not.

Criminal sanctions were followed through in 25 instances.

Ian Horner, local security management specialist for Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS), said: “Any attacks on our staff, both verbal and physical, are completely unacceptable. We operate a zero tolerance policy towards violent and aggressive behaviour and action will be taken against those who assault our staff.

“The increase compared to the previous year is largely due to improvements in our incident reporting process and an increased willingness among our staff to report incidents.

“This is a shocking figure and it is appalling that ambulance service staff who do a difficult job, often in challenging circumstances, can be physically and verbally attacked as they try to save lives.”