HEALTH Secretary Frank Dobson told a Brighton conference today: "I want to reduce assaults on hospital staff."

He was speaking to health officials at the annual conference of Unison, Britain's largest union.

Mr Dobson told delegates at the Brighton Centre that cracking down on attacks on doctors and nurses had "become a personal obsession".

He said the Government aimed to reduce attacks on health staff by 30 per cent in the next four years.

Mr Dobson said: "It's simply got to be cut back.

"We cannot tolerate it."

He added one way of achieving this was by improving security, including alarms and closed circuit TV in hospital casualty departments.

He also announced that short-term contracts in the NHS were being eliminated.

Mr Dobson said that they had become commonplace over the last few years and this was not good news.

He added: "We have abolished the internal market and given the NHS a three-year, £21 million settlement, so it's time to get rid of short-term contracts."

Amid catcalls, the Health Secretary defended the use of private finance initiatives to help build new hospitals.

He said the record of the NHS in building hospitals had been poor, but the new privately-funded schemes were going ahead without delay.

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