HOSPITAL bosses last night denied staff safety was at risk after figures showed the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre had one of the country’s highest rates of attacks by patients.

The orthopaedic centre’s 837 staff reported 37 assaults between April 2008 and March 2009 compared to just six the previous year. Proportionately that was the worst record for an acute hospital in England and Wales.

But a spokesman said patients were not attacking staff maliciously and that many of the assaults were because they were suffering from neurological conditions and were not responsible for their actions.

Hospital chiefs analysing the figures said 35 of the assaults occurred within its brain injury unit with one patient alone said to be responsible for 15 of the assaults.

The spike in attacks has partially been attributed to a new on-line reporting system and a 20 per cent increase in occupancy at its neurological rehabilitation service.

Countywide, staff working at Oxfordshire NHS Trusts reported more than 1,033 assaults – an increase of 11 per cent on the previous year when there were 928 attacks.

Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Trust suffered the highest number of assaults, with 524 recorded – a 33 per cent increase on figures for 2007/08.

Workers at the Oxfordshire Learning Disability NHS Trust suffered the highest proportion of assaults per head of staff on NHS workers in the county. However the trust saw the number of attacks on its staff drop by 16 per cent from 430 to 365.

Oxfordshire PCT saw attacks on staff triple from five to 18.

Acute hospitals deal with serious illnesses and injuries and treat patients recovering from surgery.

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust saw a seven per cent drop in attacks from 95 to 89.

South Central Ambulance Service recorded a 30 per cent drop in assaults from 50 to 35.

NOC communications manager Melanie Proudfoot said: “It’s not the same as at other hospitals with people coming into reception and assaulting staff.

“It is patients being dealt with for particular neurological conditions. They are not malicious assaults by patients.

“Unfortunately sometimes their behaviour can be irrational but our staff are trained to deal with these patients.”

Emma Heath spokesman for Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Trust, said: “We take incidents of aggression against our staff very seriously and use a vigorous reporting process to follow up reports.

“We use the reports to investigate incidents and to put measures in place to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

“These measures include robust risk assessments and management plans for patients.”

* FORMER emergency care assistant Kerryn Pratt has been told she many never work in an ambulance again after she was attacked by a drunk she was treating.

The 27-year-old suffered severe damage to a tendon in her arm after she was jumped on by a 21-year-old woman while they were speeding to hospital last year.

Miss Pratt is now based at the South Central Ambulance Service’s offices in Bicester, working to improve patient care.

During the attack, the “heavily intoxicated” woman kicked her in the ribs, swung at her with handcuffs and jumped on her.

The attacker was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison.

Miss Pratt said: “The sentence showed we do not tolerate violence towards staff.”

cwalker@oxfordmail.co.uk