VIOLENCE and personal abuse is part and parcel of A&E sister Alison Parker's working life, writes Rebecca Camber.

Staff on her 90-strong nursing team at Wythenshawe Hospital have been kicked, head-butted and verbally abused by patients and relatives.

One Christmas morning a nurse was grabbed by her hair and dragged, screaming in agony, around the department by a thug until she managed to wrestle free.

After 11 years in A&E, Alison has learnt to dodge the wild swipes that both patients and relatives take at her and she is one of the few to have escaped injury on duty.

But the torrent of personal insults she puts up with every night is hard to take. She said: "The abuse is daily and they say anything they can to hurt you.

"It can be really personal and it does grind you down. But I try not to think about it too much because they are not worth it. Sometimes we have to have them removed by the police.

"It makes me so angry, because you wouldn't put up with it if you worked at Selfridges in Manchester, so why should we?

"I have never been physically assaulted because I've become too quick and I keep them at arm's length.

But it isn't only Accident and Emergency staff being attacked, it is happening across the hospital.

"The abuse has just become part of the job and it feels like there is nothing anybody can do about that." Tweet