The Royal United Hospital in Bath is to have its own police station, after a sharp rise in attacks on staff.

The new station is to be set up in the hospital's new accident and emergency (A and E) department, which opens next year.

The station will give police officers a base and somewhere to take and detain people wherever necessary.

The plan mirrors a �250,000 scheme set up at the Bristol Royal Infirmary earlier this year.

'Zero tolerance'

Caron Boardon, a sister working on the Bath hospital's A and E department, said: "I've been on quite a few shifts where some of my colleagues have been assaulted.

"One of them was spat at in the face by a patient who was bleeding quite heavily from his mouth.

"People have been shoved and pushed around the department. You don't have a lot of control.

"Even though we have a zero tolerance policy where you can get people removed, it feels - especially if you're in charge of a shift - that you don't have a lot of protection over your colleagues."