MORE than 20 health workers were assaulted in the past year, it has been revealed.

Those attacked worked in doctors and dentists' surgeries, or were part of community nursing teams.

Five of the 21 who were physically assaulted by patients needed medical treatment and four staff needed time off work to recover from the attacks.

Dr Stephen Liversedge, chairman of Bolton NHS Primary Care Trust's professional executive committee, said a zero-tolerance approach is taken when it came to physical assaults on medical staff.

He said: "It is always disappointing to have to record staff being verbally and physically abused by members of the public.

"Practice staff are doing difficult jobs with lots of pressures and seek to do their best. Sometimes, this isn't realised by patients.

"All incidents are not recorded because things happen in the heat of the moment. A member of staff might come in and say someone was shouting in the surgery but let the moment pass."

Dr Stephen Hamilton said: "Sometimes patients are in stressful and emotional conditions. The key is to diffuse the situation to continue the relationship as before. The patient might have received some bad news from the hospital, for example. There is not a zero-tolerance approach to this and these incidents are often not reported."

A total of 627 incidents were reported in the past 12 months. Two healthcare staff suffered burns and scalds, four had come into contact with harmful substances, and one had come into contact with an infectious patient.

There were also 13 reports of patients assaulting patients, in which five people were injured.

The figures also show that, among the 20 buildings the trust owns and leases, there were 62 incidents of vandalism, seven fires and 32 thefts.