NURSES are facing an “abhorrent” rise in violence, with staff being punched, spat at and even threatened with guns, a shocking new report revealed today.

Figures obtained by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) from 89 trusts show that cases of physical violence against A&E staff have doubled — from 2,093 in 2019 to 4,054 in 2024.

The surge coincides with a sharp increase in A&E waits over 12 hours — which have risen 20-fold in the same five-year period, the union reported.

One senior charge nurse said that the situation is so severe that “patients you would expect to be placid are becoming irate because of just how long they have to wait.”

The RCN calculated that emergency department staff are now being attacked once an hour on average.

A senior A&E nurse said she had seen colleagues punched, kicked and had a gun pointed at them.

She added that she had personally been spat at and threatened with an acid attack.

“The violence I saw made me become more fearful outside work. I saw how volatile people can be,” the nurse said.

RCN general secretary Nicola Ranger said: “The government needs to do more than record the shocking levels of violence — it needs to reduce it.

“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.”

Maidstone hospital in Kent saw incidents rise by more than 500 per cent from 13 in 2019 to 89, while attacks at Southmead Hospital in Bristol doubled from 83 to 152.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said he was “appalled” by the RCN’S findings.

“Anyone who violates this core principle will feel the full force of the law,” he said.

But co-chair of Keep Our NHS Public Dr John Puntis said: “The answer is not just to threaten perpetrators with the full force of the law as suggested by Wes Streeting, but to tackle the root causes.

“Patient flow would improve immensely if social care services were put on a sound footing rather than being omitted from the long-term plan for the NHS. “

As the government presses ahead with its targets to reduce waiting lists, Mr Streeting announced plans last month to upgrade the NHS app with artificial intelligence, so that it will offer instant advice akin to having a “doctor in your pocket.”

But Dr Puntis said that imagining new technology will transform the current situation without significant investment, at a time when new financial restraints are forcing hospitals to cut staff, is a “recipe for disaster.”

Johnbosco Nwogbo, lead campaigner at We Own It, said the RCN’s figures should serve as a “wake-up call” for the government.

He said: “While an increase in NHS budgets is welcome, the Health Secretary must ensure every penny is working hard to improve care and clinical outcomes.

“The government’s recently published NHS 10-year plan contains a commitment to explore Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to fund new Neighbourhood Health Centres.

“This would be disastrous and risks repeating the catastrophe of earlier Private Finance Initiatives (PFI).  

“Our own research shows that the NHS still owes £44 billion on Tony Blair’s PFI deals, with some trusts spending more on private debt than on medicines.

“There are multiple crises facing the NHS and A&E departments often bear the brunt of failures elsewhere in the system.”