One A&E worker was attacked every two hours last year, new figures have shown.
Long wait times are meanwhile leading to anger among patients who are "not prone to violence", the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned.
Nurses have been spat at, threatened with an acid attack, punched, kicked and even had a gun pointed at them, according to the union.
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Figures from 89 NHS hospital trusts in England out of a possible 129 showed there were 4,054 cases of physical violence against A&E staff recorded in 2024 - an average of 11 per day or two per hour.
This is up around 93 per cent from 2019, when 2,093 cases were recorded.
The union has called on more to be done to protect NHS staff from the "abhorrent" behaviour of patients.
“Nursing staff not only go to work underpaid and undervalued but now face a rising tide of violence", RCN general secretary and chief executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said.
“It leads to both physical and mental scarring, lengthy time off and sometimes staff never returning.
There were an average of 11 attacks a day on workers last year in A&E departments
|PA
“Measures to keep staff safe day-to-day are crucial, but the stark reality is that unless the Government does something about lengthy waits, corridor care and understaffed nursing teams, more nursing staff will become victims of this utterly abhorrent behaviour.
“Left unaddressed, this could see plans to reform the NHS fail completely.”
Rachelle McCarthy, a senior nurse from the East Midlands, told the RCN she was punched "square in the face" by a "drunk, 6ft 2ins bloke".
She said that even patients you would "expect to be placid" are "becoming irate" due to wait times.
“You can only imagine the behaviour of those who are already prone to violence,” McCarthy added.
The Royal College of Nursing is calling for more to be done to protect NHS staff amid a sharp rise in physical violence in A&E departments
|PA
Sarah Tappy, a senior sister in an A&E in east London, reported being knocked unconscious after being punched in the head by a patient.
She said: “The violence is awful and it’s just constant. Nurses, doctors, receptionists – none of us feels safe.”
At a Bristol hospital, incidents of violence against staff almost doubled between 2019 and 2024, increasing from 83 to 152.
At a hospital in Kent, incidents rose by more than 500 per cent from 13 in 2019 to 89 in 2024.
One senior A&E nurse said her hospital was a “tinder box” for violence.
Results from the latest NHS staff survey found that around 14.4 per cent of staff experienced at least one incident of violence in a 12-month period from patients or other members of the public.
Separate analysis of NHS data by the RCN also shows that waits of more than 12 hours in A&E increased by more than 20 times from 2019 to 2024.
Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “I am appalled by these findings.
“Nurses dedicate their lives to helping others and deserve to go about their jobs free from violence or intimidation.
“Anyone who violates this core principle will feel the full force of the law."
The Liberal Democrats have called for A&E staff to be given access to a panic button which would give them a “direct line” to the police.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was 'appalled' by the findings
|PA
The party’s health spokesperson, Helen Morgan, said: “Violence against hospital staff is utterly abhorrent and those committing it should feel the full force of the law.
"Those working in hospitals often do so under incredibly difficult conditions to look after us when we are most in need.
“The Conservatives’ shameful neglect left our hospitals understaffed and patients left at risk.
"If this Labour Government thinks it can turn that around without addressing this shocking violence, they are badly mistaken."
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