Police patrols have begun round hospital wards to help crack down on violence towards staff and other crime.

Uniformed officers are now making regular daily visits to Bradford Royal Infirmary in the first stage of a major expansion of crime fighting operations in the NHS.

And the scheme, part of the Telegraph & Argus End The Abuse campaign, has already been hailed a success, with hospital staff feeling more secure in their work.

The initiative, launched this month, has seen West Yorkshire Police's community support officers (PCSOs) patrolling wards and corridors and working alongside the hospitals' own security teams.

New funding could also lead to a permanent police station being set up in the accident and emergency department with computers linked to the police database allowing officers to question and process suspects on site.

The PCSO patrols began earlier this month as a pilot scheme. Officers covering Heaton call into BRI several times a day to talk to staff and patients, and make use of their own police contact point.

And medical staff say they have made a huge difference.

Karon Snape, assistant director of non-clinical support services, said: "Staff feel that, apart from our own security, the benefit of having a police support officer is they have a radio and are in contact with the police.

"There are two officers patrolling Heaton every day and they come in here and can use the security room as a contact point.

"Support officers wear yellow fluorescent jackets which makes them more visible and they walk around the site, specifically areas like the accident and emergency department and the maternity wards, where there are more incidents.

"They are a real deterrent and it links in well with the end the abuse campaign and other zero tolerance work we are doing against violence."

The project is funded entirely by West Yorkshire Police, and Chief Inspector John Chambers said the patrols would go on indefinitely: "I have had a lot of positive feedback from people who work in the hospital, they feel more reassured with the police presence. The PCSOs do a fantastic job, they do what we police often haven't the capacity to and become our eyes and ears."

He revealed negotiations are now taking place to secure a permanent BRI office for the police: "It would be a room with computers which would be mainlined into our own centre so that enquiries and witness interviews could take place there.

"We are trying to increase visibility around the hospital, both to reduce crime, and to make staff and the public feel less vulnerable. I am sure it will reap rewards in crime reduction."

The T&A's End The Abuse campaign - backed by Prime Minister Tony Blair and Health Secretary John Reid - was launched after figures showed more than 400 staff at Bradford's hospitals had suffered violence or intimidation by patients or their families in the six months to October last year. Incidents of aggression against staff had doubled in just six years.