A drive to stamp out violence and aggression against NHS staff has resulted in soaring prosecutions of offenders.

It reinforces the Telegraph & Argus campaign to end abuse of healthcare staff.

The campaign was started after figures showed more than 400 staff at Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's suffered abuse over a six-month period.

Now new statistics reveal the number of successful prosecutions in the Northern and Yorkshire region during 2004 to 2005 was more than double those for the whole country in the previous year.

In 2003 to 2004 only 51 people were taken to court nationwide for attacking health service personnel but during the last financial year 117 people were prosecuted in the Northern and Yorkshire region alone. Overall prosecutions rose 15-fold, with 759 people successfully prosecuted.

The increase is being put down to extra efforts of the NHS Security Management Service to ensure that effective sanctions are applied to those who attack NHS staff.

A spokesman for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "Our staff go to work to care for others - not to become victims of violence, aggression or intimidation.

"They do a marvellous job, often in very difficult circumstances, and the least they can expect is to be treated fairly, and with dignity and respect wherever they work.

"I want to reassure people that we do not tolerate this kind of behaviour in any form at Bradford hospitals. Unfortunately, violence is a society problem not exclusive to the confines of the NHS. However, we will not be complacent about measures to tackle it.

"Thanks to the stirling work of security staff at the trust, and our excellent partnership working with colleagues at West Yorkshire Police, we are experiencing a culture of greater awareness around these issues.

"This has been further strengthened by campaigns from the Telegraph & Argus and the NHS Counterfraud & Security Management Service.

"More staff are realising that this sort of behaviour is completely unacceptable, and this helps to explain the reason why we have not witnessed a decrease in the number of incidences of this nature. This could be due to staff reporting them more freely instead of accepting the behaviour as just another part of their jobs."

Among measures introduced by the trust are the presence of community police officers on site and a series of roadshows for staff raising awareness about dealing with violence and aggression.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said: "Violence against NHS staff is completely unacceptable. For a minority of people to show them such disrespect is intolerable.

"The huge increase in prosecutions demonstrates that we will take tough action against anyone who attacks them."

e-mail: claire.lomax@bradford.newsquest.co.uk