The toughest of measures need to be taken to prevent the abuse of NHS staff. That was the theme of our much-praised End the Abuse campaign some time ago. The way that Ruksana Rahman has been dealt with by Judge Roger Scott is a good example of the sort of outcome we hoped to see, to protect the people whose job it is to treat the sick from violent and disruptive individuals.

A five-year Anti-Social Behaviour Order barring her from the Bradford Royal Infirmary premises and grounds might seem to some to be extreme, but given the problems she has caused it is a necessary measure. The ban, and the 13-month prison sentence, are important to show how seriously society takes this sort of behaviour.

Rahman has a history of violent action towards staff at the A&E department at the BRI as well as to paramedics who turned out to help her when she posed as a 13-year-old girl who claimed to have taken an overdose. She had previous convictions for assaulting police, battery and disorderly behaviour.

Yet the court was told that a psychiatrist had concluded that she is not seriously mentally ill. So there can be no excuse for the sort of behaviour which has caused so much concern to NHS workers. Hopefully the months spent in prison will give Rahman time to calm down and think hard about her behaviour, while her sentence will serve as a lesson to others that anti-social antics will be met with firm action – and rightly so.