NURSES working at Trowbridge Hospital are facing an increasing barrage of verbal and physical abuse as levels of violence against medical staff reaches a new high.

The warning comes just days after a 27-year-old Trowbridge man appeared in court charged with assaulting a nurse who was trying to care for him.

Staff nurse Deborah Mayo, who was assaulted while trying to treat Matthew Tee, is the latest in a long line of hospital employees to be viciously attacked on duty.

Training courses have now been set up for nurses, reception staff and medics, giving advice on how to deal with difficult situations and avoid physical confrontations.

But attacks against staff are becoming increasingly violent, and measures have had to be put in place to punish those who break the law.

Hilary Fairfield, director of services at West Wiltshire Primary Care Trust, said people who attacked members of staff at the hospital faced tough penalties under their zero tolerance rule.

She said: "We are seeing a big increase in the number of attacks, not just physical but verbal.

"One reason is because there are higher expectations of what we can do, another is the high stress levels experienced by individuals at the hospital.

"The third reason for the increase is that the services are fairly stretched.

"But these incidents are not acceptable. As an organisation we have a policy of zero tolerance on violence against staff or other patients.

"Our staff are all working hard and under difficult conditions. I think the problem is the same for a lot of the emergency services including police, fire officers and paramedics.

A record of violent and abusive incidents is being kept by staff at Trowbridge Hospital, in Adcroft, with nurses being sent on

training courses to help them deal with threatening and abusive patients.

Senior hospital staff members have also attended the Susie Lamplugh Trust training scheme, set up by the mother of the vanished London estate agent, which teaches the latest methods in how to avoid compromising or dangerous situations.

Mrs Fairfield said: "A lot of it is training to prevent the problems like this occurring, but we do acknowledge that sometimes it is impossible to prevent the incidents and that is why we have the zero tolerance rule.

"It is not just nurses who are offered the training, receptionists and other medical staff are involved."