A scare on Friday night has left some medical staff at the Percy Junor Hospital in Spaldings, Manchester, calling for improved security measures on the hospital grounds.

Reports reaching The Gleaner are that three men, armed with knives, attempted to barge their way into the Accident and Emergency Unit (A&E) of the hospital on Friday night in order to finish off an attack on a man whom they had stabbed several times.

"I was there trying to control the bleeding when these three guys just come straight into A&E and come around to the back door and were threatening [to kill the patient], and the guy speaks back and they pull out knives. They were the ones who stabbed him, so they apparently came to finish him off," medical officer at the hospital, Dr. Ghazzali Ahmad, told The Gleaner on the weekend.

Quick thinking

The men had to be kept out of A&E by quick-thinking medical staff who blocked the entrance to the department. None of the two security personnel employed to the hospital could be found.

"I told them to close all the doors and we locked everything and we called the police and then, by the time the police came, the three guys had gone away," Dr. Ahmad continued.

Up to news time yesterday evening, The Gleaner could not ascertain from police whether the men had been taken into custody.

According to Dr. Ahmad, the hospital has been coming under pressure from cases of violence. He says security is slack and limited and often forces the hospital to transfer patients elsewhere because they are not safe on the hospital wards.