A survey of 850 Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust staff last year found 29 per cent had experienced harassment, bullying or abuse from patients or their families.

That was up from 22 per cent in 2006 and puts the Leeds trust, which runs St James's Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary, in the bottom 20 per cent of hospital trusts nationally for abuse.

Though the problem has been tackled in traditional flashpoints like accident and emergency, hospital bosses say it has now moved to other areas.

Work is under way to kerb the incidence of abuse in other wards and departments as well.

Hospitals trust security officer Peter Burrows urged patients and their relatives to give medics a break.

"If you go to hospital you have got to understand the medical staff are there to give you treatment," he said. "They are not there to do you any harm. It's not nice to be assaulted doing your job.""

Sharon Hamilton, secretary of the trust branch of Unison, said: "This has been happening for years. We want the trust to take it more seriously.

"People should know we are not here to be abused. We are doing our jobs, here to help them, and being abusive to us is not acceptable."
Rachel Allsop, trust director of HR, told the organisation's executive board they were working on improving the situation.

"We have identified those areas where harassment, bullying and abuse were deemed to be more of a concern," she said. "These were older people's services and midwifery.

"So we have brought people who have done good work in A&E to see how we can take it into these areas."