BOURNEMOUTH and Poole hospitals are among the worst in England for physical attacks on staff.

The 2006 national NHS staff survey revealed both Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Poole Hospital NHS Trust were in the bottom 20 per cent for violence.

A shocking 14 per cent of Bournemouth staff surveyed said they had been victims of physical assaults from patients or their relatives in the last 12 months.

In Poole that figure was 17 per cent - up five per cent on the previous year.

These levels are well above the 11 per cent average reported by staff across hospital trusts in England. And the level of harassment towards staff was also higher in the two local trusts than in 80 per cent of hospital trusts around the country.

The figures, released by the Healthcare Commission yesterday also show Poole Hospital was in the bottom 20 per cent for errors or near misses which could have resulted in injury to patients or staff. A staggering 44 per cent of those questioned said they had seen at least one incident in the last month.

Bournemouth fared far better in this category with just 36 per cent of staff reporting such occurrences- among the lowest in the country.

Both hospital trusts scored well in questions about job satisfaction and staff were also among the least likely to want to leave their jobs.

Martin Smits, director of nursing, at Poole Hospital, said the trust would be studying the findings in detail.

"We were very pleased to see that staff placed Poole in the top 20 per cent of hospitals for the second year running in the two key areas of staff satisfaction and retention."

He added: "We were very disappointed that we did not score so well in other areas, especially those that are as important as the number of potentially harmful incidents and attacks on staff.

"We will be looking very carefully at the findings but we believe that they may be due at least in part to the fact that we have good reporting systems."

A spokesman for The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "The trust is extremely pleased to score well in a number of areas within the survey, including infection control and hygiene, staff having a positive feeling about their work and high levels of job satisfaction. However, we do recognise that there are areas for improvement."

Referring to the high level of attacks on staff he said: "The Trust has recently introduced a bullying and harassment policy which has been promoted among staff, and we have actively encouraged people to report incidents so that appropriate action can be taken. We take any form of abuse against staff extremely seriously"

He added: "Across the trust we have encouraged better reporting of all kinds of incidents and this is reflected in this year's survey."

The trust will now arrange focus groups and further staff surveys to improve areas of concern.