Aggressive patients will be shown the red card if they attack hospital staff in Worthing and Shoreham.

Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust has introduced a zero tolerance policy for abusive patients, visitors and carers.

The card system, similar to that used in football, means unruly people will be given a "yellow card" warning.

If they do not comply, the aggressor will be 'sent off' and refused treatment. The police will be called and told to remove that person from the premises.

The card system follows a national campaign to curb attacks on hospital staff.

Last year there were almost 1,000 incidents in which staff at Worthing and Southlands hospitals were threatened, punched or bitten.

A trust newsletter said: "There has been a dramatic increase in the level of violence and abuse faced by staff, visitors and patients. Nationally, there has been a rise of 24 per cent. Locally, the rise is 17 per cent.

"Last year there were 987 reported incidents of aggression and verbal abuse in Worthing and Southlands hospitals."

The newsletter said the incidents involved damage to vital equipment and "extreme verbal abuse and threats".

Trust risk manager Steve Fenner said: "None of this is acceptable and the new card policy sets out to give staff the power to act."

Worthing Hospital has only one security guard but other staff are being trained in mediation techniques to diffuse hostile situations and avoid police action.

Trust chief executive Roger Greene said the rise in aggressive incidents was partially down to better reporting by staff.

He said: "When we see the rise locally is less than the rise in attacks on nursing staff nationally, it does not diminish the seriousness of the incidents experienced by staff.

"What we are doing is part of a national campaign to get tough with people who are violent."

Mr Greene said the zero tolerance policy did not involve pressing charges against everyone who was abusive or violent in hospitals but the trust would support members of staff who wished to take the matter further.

Pam Lelliott, trust communications manager, said a violent patient, whose condition was not life-threatening, would be refused help until they had calmed down.

She said: "If they need medical attention, we would see them but they would have to promise their behaviour would be appropriate.

"It's not just them we have to consider, it is other patients and the staff.

"If someone needs urgent medical attention, there is no question of them not being treated."

Figures for East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which includes Eastbourne and Hastings, show 52 cases of physical violence and 41 cases of verbal assault were directed at staff between April and September this year.

For Eastbourne alone, the figure for the same period is 21 cases of physical assault and 27 cases of verbal abuse.

Both figures are down from the same time last year.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust runs A&E departments at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

It has not introduced the card system but says it has a zero tolerance policy towards assaults on staff.

It has set up training sessions for staff to learn how to cope with potentially volatile incidents and has a direct CCTV link between the Royal Sussex and the police station in John Street, Brighton.

There were 1,101 reported verbal and physical aggressive incidents at trust premises between April last year and March this year, a drop on the previous year's figure of 1,218.

The number of actual physical assaults rose from 160 to 164 over the same period.

The red card system to stop violence in hospitals was first suggested by former Health Secretary Alan Milburn last year.