The NHS has been urged to adopt a zero tolerance approach to bullying after a survey found staff were being harassed by patients and colleagues.

The poll found a quarter of NHS staff had been bullied and harassed by patients and their relatives, while almost one-in-seven had been the victim of similar treatment from their colleagues.

The findings have prompted the British Medical Association to call for the NHS to adopt a policy of "zero tolerance to bullying from the top down".

The report, released by the BMA, said bullying and harassment was increasing within the health service. However, it said this could be because staff were reporting more incidents after realising they did not have to tolerate unfair treatment.

The poll follows a BMA survey in which one-in-four medical students said they had been bullied by other doctors and 16 per cent reported they had been bullied by nurses.

Dr Sam Everington, deputy chairman of the BMA, said: "The cycle of bullying in medicine has to stop. It's not good enough for a senior doctor to think that he or she had a hard time and was humiliated as medical student so it's justified for them to dole out the same treatment.

"It's not just students and juniors who are bullied. Consultants can be bullied by their peers and by managers. The highly pressurised target ethos in the health service only adds to the survival-of-the-fittest culture where bullying is often seen as a way of motivating staff."

The zero tolerance approach is one championed by the Telegraph & Argus End the Abuse campaign which was launched to highlight the disturbing levels of attacks and abuse suffered by health workers in the district.

It has been supported by local health bosses who say they will welcome any initiative designed to curb violence and abuse.

A spokesman for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital, said: "The Trust has a zero tolerance approach to bullying.

"We have a well-established harassment and bullying policy which supports this approach and we always urge anyone who feels they have been bullied in whatever circumstances to report this."

Dr Everington said staff grade doctors, associate specialist doctors and staff from overseas were particularly vulnerable.

The most common forms of bullying included attempts to belittle and undermine work, withholding necessary information, removing areas of responsibility and setting impossible deadlines.

He said it made economic sense for the NHS to tackle bullying because stressed staff took more time off work and were more likely to leave the health service.

e-mail: claire.lomax@bradford.newsquest.co.uk