Hospital workers face an increased risk of being attacked by violent patients after the number of security staff was cut.

Porters are to help provide security at The Conquest Hospital in St Leonards, where almost a third of doctors and nurses experienced violence and abuse over a year-long period.

Instead of having two security guards working shifts, East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust has reduced this number to one guard working shifts to save £50,000 a year.

Although the hospital will still have 24-hour security cover, there will be fewer staff, meaning porters often have to step in.

Unions have branded the move a "false economy", saying staff will have to take time off sick to recover from more assaults as the security cover is reduced.

The Healthcare Commission's annual survey of NHS staff, published in March, showed over a 12-month period 30 per cent of staff at East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust faced violence or abuse at work.

The trust, which also covers Eastbourne District General Hospital, is working to save £1 million from its facilities budget and is looking at cuts in catering, cleaning and security.

According to Sussex Police, between 2004 and 2005 officers were called to The Conquest Hospital 193 times.

There were 27 reports of people causing a nuisance, 83 missing person reports, 20 violent offences, a robbery, a sex attack, two incidents involving firearms and one incident involving a fire or flood.

At Eastbourne District General Hospital there were 221 calls to the police, including two people absconding from custody or care, 28 violent incidents, 53 reports of people causing a nuisance and eight sexual offences.

Margaret Williams, of the Friends of the Conquest Hospital, said nurses in accident and emergency and the baby unit needed to know there was adequate security, particularly with the high number of psychiatric patients in the community.

A spokeswoman from Unison, which represents public sector workers, said: "Security is a separate job in itself that requires training and expertise and you can't just expect porters to always be on the scene when they're needed for security. Their own duties might take them to other parts of the hospital.

"We have had nurses and paramedics so badly injured across the country they have not been able to return to work. Nobody should have to work in those conditions."

Stuart Barnhill, deputy director of facilities at the trust, said porters had provided security cover for sickness and holidays for six months. He said the trust was formalising the arrangement because it had worked well and would save money.

He said because the trust was good at recording incidents it appeared to have an unusually high number but 70 or 80 per cent of reports were about minor incidents.

Mr Barnhill said: "Much of the security work involves making sure doors and windows are locked and challenging people who are not where they're supposed to be, which hospital porters do anyway.

"In situations where we need a security presence hospital porters are often better than uniformed security guards because they can pacify the patient."