Nurses seek prison terms for attackers

Nursing leaders have called for mandatory prison sentences for people convicted of assaulting frontline hospital staff following a serious assault on a nurse in a busy city hospital.

It emerged last night that the man was attacked by a patient in the emergency department (ED) of Cork’s Mercy University Hospital (MUH) last Friday morning, and suffered a fractured knee cap. He is expected to be out of work for some time.

It is the second serious assault on a nurse at MUH in the last two years.