The new station is to be set up in the hospital's new accident and emergency (A and E) department, which opens next year.

The station will give police officers a base and somewhere to take and detain people wherever necessary.

The plan mirrors a £250,000 scheme set up at the Bristol Royal Infirmary earlier this year.

'Zero tolerance'

Caron Boardon, a sister working on the Bath hospital's A and E department, said: "I've been on quite a few shifts where some of my colleagues have been assaulted.

"One of them was spat at in the face by a patient who was bleeding quite heavily from his mouth.

"People have been shoved and pushed around the department. You don't have a lot of control.

"Even though we have a zero tolerance policy where you can get people removed, it feels - especially if you're in charge of a shift - that you don't have a lot of protection over your colleagues."