The accident department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital is a place where patients are brought to receive the best possible emergency treatment.

All too often, however, it's the hardworking hospital staff who end up being threatened and attacked by the patients.

Latest figures for hospitals in Brighton show more than 1,000 violent incidents with half of them in the A&E department.

Much of the trouble is caused by people who are high on drink or drugs. They are a menace, not only to the staff but also to other patients.

The only way to deal with violent troublemakers is to adopt a zero tolerance policy and make sure all incidents are captured by security cameras.

That is what is being done as the hospital authorities make it as clear as can be that this sort of behaviour cannot be tolerated.

Doctors, nurses and other hospital staff are there to help people. Their skill and quick work in the A&E department can make the difference between life and death.

It is deplorable that thugs, who are often not even patients, should be threatening or attacking the medics. It must be stopped.

The actual number of attacks and violent incidents is probably even higher than figures suggest but some staff do not want to go to the trouble of reporting them.

Hospital bosses must make it clear that violence is out of order anywhere in a hospital.

People who perpetrate these attacks must be liable to arrest, prosecution and sentence just as surely as if they committed offences in the city centre under the nose of the police.