Police were called to reports of an attack at Salford Royal Hospital, at 1.50pm on Sunday. The staff member, a man in his 50s was punched in the face and left with a fractured cheekbone.

A 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault.

Daniel Shevlin, 27, has now been charged in connection to the incident.

He has been charged with one count of section 20 assault and one count of section 4a of the Public Disorder Act.

He has been remanded in custody and will appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court today.

The Salford Royal Hospital staff member is said to be recovering at home following the incident.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed they had been called to the scene.

They said: “A 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of section 20 assault.

“The NHS staff member – a man in his 50s – required treatment for a fractured cheekbone but has since been discharged.”

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Figures supplied by hospital trusts have shown that they recorded 56,435 physical assaults on staff in 2016-17, up 9.7 percent on the 51,447 recorded the year before.

The data, from 181 of the NHS’s 244 hospital trusts, was obtained by the Health Service Journal on behalf of the union Unison under the Freedom of Information Act.

Nurses, paramedics and mental health staff are among those most likely to be assaulted.

Acute hospital trusts have seen the biggest increase in attacks.

There were 18,720 assaults on their staff during 2016-17.

This is a staggering 21 percent more than the 15,469 the previous year.

Unison said the jump was staggering and was linked to NHS pressures and growing waits for urgent and emergency care.

They also said that if the figures were extrapolated to include the 63 trusts that did not respond to a request for figures, the true total of assaults every year would be aroung 75,000, or 200 a day.

Staff in mental health services are seven and a half times more likely to be assaulted.

There were a total of 33,820 assaults in 2016-17 in the mental health trusts that responded. 

This is a 5 percent annual rise, which was smaller than the year before.

“This seems to suggest the sector is having some success in preventing a difficult situation from getting any worse,” Unison said.