A nursing union chief today welcomed a Telegraph & Argus campaign to end violence and abuse towards NHS staff.

Susan West is regional officer for the country's largest nurses' union, the Royal College of Nursing.

She said: "People always assume it is just in A&E but we find abuse across all areas of the NHS. "I am pleased the T&A has taken this on as a campaign because it is a significant problem and has been for some time."

The drive comes after alarming new figures first published in the T&A last week revealed the soaring level of abuse towards NHS staff in Bradford.

More than 400 staff at Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's reported experiencing violence and aggression in the last six months. And at Airedale General Hospital, Steeton, near Keighley, 140 incidents of abuse were recorded last year.

"In places like A&E and mental health wards nurses used to take it as a part of their jobs," said Mrs West. "But these figures show culture is changing and there are now more reports from nurses who refuse to accept it."

She said abuse experienced by nursing staff in Bradford ranged from terrible swearing to actual assault.

"I know one A&E nurse in Bradford who has been assaulted three times," said Mrs West, a nurse for 23 years.

"She has been punched in the face, but the worst incident was a year ago when she was kicked in the stomach by a 16-year-old.

"He was given a police caution and she was pleased about that.

"I think she felt able to go back to work because of all the support she received."

But not all staff are able to overcome incidents of abuse.

"One mental health nurse had been regularly abused and then started getting death threats," she said. "It totally shattered her confidence and she ended up taking early retirement, which was a shame because we lost a very experienced psychiatric nurse."

Mrs West said the union worked closely with hospital trusts to ensure effective safety measures were in place for staff, including CCTV and personal alarm systems.

And she said training for nurses to learn how to deal with difficult patients was vital.

She said: "People forget nurses are members of the community and deserve as much respect as anyone else.