A HOSPITAL boss said attacks on staff are “unacceptable” after a drug addict was sentenced to assaulting a doctor and a nurse.

John Horton, of Stewart Close in Bournemouth, was handed a community order with a drug rehabilitation requirement by magistrates this month after admitting assaulting Dr Rosemund Travell and staff nurse Jane Blackmore.

The assaults took place at Royal Bournemouth Hospital’s accident and emergency department on Saturday, July 2.

Horton, 45, also admitted assaulting another man, Richard Smith, using threatening or abusive words or behaviour and having in his possession a quantity of heroin.

All of the offences happened on the same date.

RBH chief operating officer Richard Renaut condemned all violence against members of staff working at the hospital and said offenders could be barred.

“We are very proud of our staff who dedicate themselves to saving lives on a daily basis,” he said.

“It is unacceptable that they should be stopped from doing this by being attacked, either physically or verbally.

“We will investigate and support prosecution, or exclusion from our hospitals, for any offenders.”

Horton was ordered to complete the community order within a year.

As part of the order, he will have treatment for his addiction.

Horton must also pay compensation to his victims.

In 2014, Dutch national Serge Van Den Heerik was jailed for punching a doctor and making threats to kill a nurse at the same hospital.

The 38-year-old, of Southcote Road, was taken to the hospital’s accident and emergency department after he appeared to suffer a seizure on March 17.

However, while staff were carrying out sensory tests on the defendant, who seemed to be unconscious, he suddenly lashed out, punching a doctor and attempting to bite a staff nurse.

He then spat at the nurse and said: “Now you have Aids.

“You’re going to die.”

Van Den Heerik was sentenced to four months behind bars after admitting two charges of assault and one of making threats with intent to cause fear.

In August 2016, Nicky Scopes, 41, was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after knifing Sister Karen Royles twice in the arm at Victoria Hospital in Wimborne last December.

Scopes, of East Borough, Wimborne, suffers with mental health problems, including paranoid schizophrenia.

Ms Royles did not suffer life-threatening or life-changing injuries in the attack.

Sentencing the defendant, Judge Peter Johnson said the case had exposed the “risks that those working on the frontline in providing medical services for society face”.

“They often deal with patients in a one-to-one situation without any security - for obvious reasons - and the public owes them a great debt,” he added.