WE applaud the decision by magistrates to make a example of a serial offender who attacked women members of staff and members of the public at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Asif Khan is today in jail and, furthermore, has been made the subject of a Criminal Behaviour Order for the next five years which bans him from BRI and St Luke's, except for a genuine emergency, on his release.

We all know just how under pressure the NHS is at the moment with record numbers of patients filling our hospitals and doctors' surgeries every day of the week.

Indeed, the problem is so acute that it was only earlier this month that we reported on a plea from BRI bosses for 'timewasters' to stop clogging up the hospital's A&E after it was shown that a third of attendees had been judged not to be genuine cases and were ones who should have sought medial treatment or advice elsewhere.

Given that backdrop of intense workloads, it is even more important that the vital role carried out by our NHS staff gets the full support of all of us and not be hindered in any way, shape or form by troublemakers, particularly those who decide to vent their anger by carrying out physical or verbal attacks.

People like this need to be brought up short to recognise the problems they are causing.

And we hope that the case of Asif Khan will act as a warning to anyone else tempted to lose control of their tempers that it will also be very likely that they will also lose their liberty.