It was a common enough scenario for staff at the accident and emergency ward in the Royal Victoria Hospital early on Saturday when two men were admitted after a road accident. The injured men were accompanied by a group of associates who began to abuse and threaten employees, being allegedly unhappy at having to attend a "Fenian hospital".
The men, wearing bulletproof vests, then proceeded to spit on, beat and injure six members of staff and, claiming to be from the Loyalist Volunteer Force, issued death threats against them. One reportedly said to one of the assaulted security guards: "LVF. Youse are dead in two weeks."
On Monday night, the LVF issued a statement denying involvement. An RUC spokesman said it was impossible to be sure who was behind the attack, but added: "We have now extensively studied the hospital's security video and let's just say if anybody on that tape had been known to us we would have arrested them by now."
An RVH spokeswoman refused to comment on possible paramilitary involvement in the attack other than to say it would be a "source for relief" for staff and management if the culprits turned out to be "only drunken hooligans". The aggression displayed was systematic of the widespread violence permeating society, she added.
Accident and emergency departments in hospitals across the North bear the brunt of this aggression, where alcohol appears to be a major factor in escalating already tense situations. Last year the North's major hospitals dealt with more than 500 physical attacks on staff. After the RVH, hospitals worst affected by violent incidents were reportedly the Altnagelvin in Derry, Craigavon hospital in Co Armagh, and the Mater in north Belfast, where staff has repeatedly been threatened by loyalists.
Following the weekend attack, the health workers' union, UNISON, criticised the RUC for not taking "sufficient pre-emptive action" and called for extra patrols in hospital grounds across the North.
RVH management has taken further measures to ensure the safety of "front-line" staff. Employees receive psychological training on how to defuse tense situations and have been issued with panic buttons. Security staff now has access to flak jackets, and an in-house counselling service for traumatised staff is being heavily frequented, the hospital spokeswoman said.
"Our health and safety officers, like all of us, are facing the difficult task of keeping this hospital as open and accessible as possible, while keeping staff and patients safe."