Violence against NHS nursing staff is "a national disgrace," according to the president of the Royal College of Nursing.

Sylvia Denton denounced rising levels of attacks on hospital staff during a two day visit to the North-East.

"One in six nurses have experienced violence. We are pressing for people who attack nurses to be given the same penalties as people who assault police officers," said Mrs Denton.

The RCN president toured the accident and emergency department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead and talked to staff. Nurse, Gillian Dodds, showed the RCN president her personal alarm and pointed out closed circuit television cameras monitoring the department.

"We have a zero tolerance approach to verbal or physical violence at this trust," said Mrs Dodds, who was threatened with a knife by a man in his 80s a few years ago.

Bob Jarman, an A and E consultant, said: "We have very good back up and support from the police. They respond very quickly if there is a problem."

Two Christmases ago an angry patient was shaping up to throw a punch at Dr Jarman when police officers burst into the department and took the man away.

"Sometimes people get aggressive if they have to wait or if something awful has happened," he added.

Low level offenders are given a 'yellow card' warning and are visited at home by the police.

Michael Houston, a former A and E nurse who now trains staff in how to deal with violence and aggression said nurses, doctors and support staff are taught how to recognise and defuse potential troublemakers and how to break away if they restrained.

Despite efforts to reduce the number of incidents, latest figures show that the Gateshead trust saw an increase in recorded incidents between 2003 and last year.

In 2003 a total of 281 incidents of physical or verbal abuse were reported by trust staff compared with 341 last year.

In Accident and Emergency alone there were 80 recorded incidents during 2004.

After a meeting with trust officials the RCN president said "major improvements" had been made to security.

"The staff really appreciate what this trust is doing. It has a good CCTV system, an alarm system and a community police officer. Security is given a very high priority," said Mrs Denton.