More people admitted to hospital after violent attacks – Lib Dems

5.32.50pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 29th Mar 2010

The Liberal Democrats have revealed that the number of people admitted to hospital after violent assaults has jumped in the last 12 months.

Hospital admissions after assault with a sharp weapon rose from 1,593 in 2008 to 1,857 in 2009, after assault with a blunt object from 658 to 709 and after assault with a firearm increased slightly from 15 to 17.

The Liberal Democrats want the Cardiff Model, where A&Es collect violent injury reports and share them with the police to fight crime, rolled out to all Scottish hospitals. So far, the SNP has only committed to pilots in Glasgow, Fife, Edinburgh and Lanarkshire.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Justice spokesperson Robert Brown MSP said:

“Our figures reveal a spike in the number of people being admitted to hospital after assaults with blunt or sharp weapons and firearms.

“The Scottish Government has to crack down on the culture of violence that is blighting our communities.

“Hospitals have unique access to the statistics behind the Friday and Saturday night brawls, gang fights and brutal attacks that fill the news bulletins and papers. Many of these are never reported to the police.

“This can be extraordinarily helpful to police when it comes to mapping out violence hotspots and targeting them with high visibility policing. That’s why we want all A&E departments to collect anonymous information on the time, location and nature of violent assaults.”