The number of NHS staff who receive abuse from their patients is "unacceptable", one MP has remarked.
According to Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat shadow health secretary, more protection is needed to protect health workers from these attacks.
A report by the Healthcare Commission revealed that 30 per cent of ambulance workers were violently attacked in 2007.
In addition, just over a quarter (26 per cent) of NHS staff have been targeted by abusive patients in the past 12 months.
Mr Lamb said: "It is simply unacceptable that levels of violence against staff have actually risen since 2005. Staff are clearly not being provided with the protection that they need to do their jobs."
The government must "sit up and listen", he added.
Gill Robertson, student adviser at the Royal College of Nursing, stated yesterday that the cost of a quarter of student nurse drop-outs to the taxpayer is "deplorable".
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