One A&E worker was attacked every two hours last year, new figures show.

Long wait times are meanwhile leading to anger among patients who are "not prone to violence", the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned.

Nurses have been spat at, threatened with an acid attack, punched, kicked and even had a gun pointed at them, according to the union.

Figures from 89 NHS hospital trusts out of a possible 129 showed there were 4,054 cases of physical violence against A&E staff recorded in 2024 - an average of 11 per day or two per hour.

This is up around 93 per cent from 2019, when 2,093 cases were recorded.

The union has called on more to be done to protect NHS staff from the "abhorrent" behaviour of patients.

“Nursing staff not only go to work underpaid and undervalued but now face a rising tide of violence, RCN general secretary and chief executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said.

“It leads to both physical and mental scarring, lengthy time off and sometimes staff never returning.

There were an average of 11 attacks a day on workers last year in A&E departments

“Measures to keep staff safe day-to-day are crucial, but the stark reality is that unless the Government does something about lengthy waits, corridor care and understaffed nursing teams, more nursing staff will become victims of this utterly abhorrent behaviour.

“Left unaddressed, this could see plans to reform the NHS fail completely.”

Rachelle McCarthy, a senior nurse from the East Midlands, told the RCN she was punched "square in the face" by a "drunk, 6ft 2ins bloke."

She said that even patients you would "expect to be placid" are "becoming irate" due to wait times.

“You can only imagine the behaviour of those who are already prone to violence,” McCarthy added.

The Royal College of Nursing is calling for more to be done to protect NHS staff amid a sharp rise in physical violence in A&E departments