More than 5000 NHS staff members in Greater Glasgow and Clyde have been assaulted at work in the last 12 months.

New figures show 5,182 healthcare staff were subjected to verbal and physical assaults as well as sexual harassment, threats and stalking between May 31, 2018 and May 31 2019.

Over half of the total number of assaults recorded were staff members being attacked by patients.

The attacks took place despite an ongoing campaign to combat aggression and the Health Board hopes that by highlighting the extent of the incidents, it can help reduce and deter them.

Anne MacPherson, director of human resources and organisational development, said: "Despite us introducing a range of measures to protect our staff we are unfortunately still seeing incidents of both physical and verbal abuse.

"In some instances staff have required support from Police Scotland because of the danger to their own and patients' wellbeing, and that is unacceptable.

"As a Board we are committed to reducing and deterring such incidents as well as ensuring staff are trained to deal with situations when they do arise. We must do all we can to protect our staff whilst delivering our services 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Our staff should be able to fulfil their duties without fear of assault or abuse."

Kenneth Fleming, head of health and safety, added: "NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has a proactive Violence and Aggression Policy and also a Standards of Behaviour document, which states that our staff are entitled to work free of threats, assaults and intimidation.

"We take any acts of physical or verbal abuse very seriously. Where staff are assaulted or abused while at work, whether in our hospitals or in the community, we fully support them and encourage them to pursue their abusers through the criminal justice system."

The new figures show that 2857 staff members were assaulted by patients, 48 were assaulted by non-patients, 13 were the victim of sexual harassment and six reported stalking incidents.

Another 1188 staff members were threatened with physical violence and 1070 were verbally abused.