NHS staff are under attack

VIOLENT attacks on NHS staff rose by almost 50 per cent in the Lothians in the last year.

NHS Lothian saw the biggest rise of any Scottish health board, with the recorded number of assaults on employees up from 1,261 in 2008 to 1,877 in 2009.

Labour's shadow justice secretary, Richard Baker, called for greater legal protection for staff, claiming the SNP administration had failed to keep a manifesto pledge to extend the Emergency Workers Act 2005 to cover all health service employees.