PATIENTS who abuse or assault staff in the casualty department at the Royal Bolton Hospital are to be given on-the-spot fines.

Police officers will hand out £80 penalties to anybody who shouts, swears, spits or lashes out at staff.

A three-month pilot scheme, the first of its kind in the country, will see an increased police presence in the accident and emergency department.

Officers will patrol the hospital at times when trouble is most likely to flare. Chief Inspector Martin Greenhalgh, of Bolton Police said: "We will be relying on nursing staff, security staff and administration staff at the hospital to help us deploy officers as and when they are needed.

"Anti-social and disorderly behaviour within our communities is not acceptable. Behaviour of this nature towards public healthcare staff will simply not be tolerated."

The scheme is a response to a rise in the number of instances of anti-social behaviour towards hospital staff across the country.

In the six months up to the end of September this year, security staff at the Royal Bolton Hospital escorted 40 people from the A&E department for aggressive behaviour.

Doctors nurses, porters and security staff were verbally abused by 41 people, both patients and their companions, in that period.

Dr Richard Parris, consultant in accident and emergency medicine at the Royal Bolton Hospital, said: "We feel this is the tip of the iceberg as staff don't always report incidents of aggressive behaviour towards them. Many feel it is part of the job, but this is unacceptable and it has to stop.

"Nobody should have to put up with that kind of behaviour in their workplace and it also causes distress for other patients and visitors in the department."

The Royal Bolton Hospital has one of the busiest emergency departments in the North-west, treating up to 300 people a day, and 100,000 a year.

Posters will be displayed in the waiting room, advising patients of the new fines system.

If it is successful, the fines could become a permanent feature at the hospital.

However, one hospital consultant yesterday expressed concerns about the enforcement of the fines.

Chris Moulton, a consultant in A&E, said: "Obviously I think that anything that can be done to deal with people's violent behaviour is a good thing, but I just don't know how it will be enforced.

"People come to hospital because they are ill, so I suspect getting money out of them will be quite hard.

"I want to know who will be expected to enforce it."