Bosses at Royal Preston and Chorley Hospitals today revealed there have been five physical assaults against staff in the last two months and 10 so far this year.

Three of these were in A&E with nurses being attacked by drunks and another case involved a porter being attacked.

Now hospital bosses are calling for a full-scale review to find out if current security policies are adequate.

Ian Cox, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust director of facilities and services, said: "It is appalling, but sadly more common place, that incidents of violence and aggression occur against healthcare staff when they are trying to care for and treat people.

"We have a number of measures to try and counter violence and aggression, including CCTV, personnel trained to provide security and a range of training courses to teach staff how to avoid such situations or what to do if they find themselves threatened.

"We have chosen to conduct a full-scale review of our comprehensive hospital security arrangements, including our Red Alert system and exclusion orders, as well as investigate the circumstances of the recent incidents to see if any lessons can be learned."

The review will include scrutinising the Red Alert system, which calls specially-trained staff to deal with physical assaults and aggressive patients.

Bosses will also review the use of zero tolerance letters and exclusion orders and will come up with recommendations to improve the way things are done.

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