More than 600 local hospital staff reported being attacked at least once by a member of the public last year.

Around 100 staff at King George Hospital in Ilford and Queen’s Hospital in Romford said they had been attacked by a colleague, while almost 50 claimed they had suffered violence from a manager.

These findings were revealed on February 18 after an annual survey of NHS staff.

More than half of workers at the two hospitals responded, their highest response rate in the last 15 years.

The hospitals are part of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT), which was told it requires improvement but is “moving in the right direction” by England’s chief inspector of hospital last month.

Read more: NHS trust requires improvement but is 'moving in the right direction'

Tony Chambers, the trust's interim chief executive, said: “Any violence or abuse towards our staff is unacceptable and we are taking the increase of reported incidents seriously.

“We’re working with the police and are going to be introducing a number of initiatives this year which focus on keeping our staff safe at work.”

Staff responses showed improvements in areas such as morale, team working and the quality of care provided since 2018.

However, almost three out of every ten staff who responded to the survey still said they “often think about leaving” the trust and more than 680 plan to leave as soon as they find another job.

Mr Chambers said: “It’s really encouraging to see our staff have reported a better experience at work compared to 2018.

“Some areas where we have improved most were senior managers acting on the feedback of staff, and effective communication between managers and their teams.

Read more: Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS trust '£9million behind'

“We also outperform similar trusts with staff having dedicated time to discuss their career with their manager at personal performance reviews.

“In the NHS there is a clear link between the experience of staff and how satisfied patients are with their care. We’re pleased the results reflect improvements for our staff, because by making our hospitals better places to work, we are making them better places to receive care.”

The departments that received the lowest scores in the survey when it came to violence were acute medicine, emergency medicine, care of the elderly, critical care, assessment and ambulatory care and stroke services.

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