Whipps Cross University Hospital has been rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), with inspectors finding patients were put at risk and staff bullied. 

Areas of concern centred on urgent and emergency care, general medical care, surgery, end-of-life care, outpatients and services for children and young people.

Critical care, maternity and gynaecology services were also found to require improvement in a report published today.

Inspectors also found a culture of bullying and harassment of staff by management.

Concerns were raised by the CQC with Barts Health NHS Trust immediately after the inspection of the Leytonstone hospital in November.

The whole trust, the largest in England, has now been placed in special measures and ordered to take urgent action to protect patient safety and improve services.

A total of four warning notices were issued relating to care and welfare of patients, assessment and monitoring of services, staffing levels and handling of complaints.

Inspectors are due to return to the hospital shortly to check on progress.

The CQC said during the November inspection staff morale was found to be low, with bullying and harassment meant workers were reluctant to raise concerns.

Staffing was not at a level to ensure the safety of patients and a reorganisation last year was found to have had a damaging effect.

Some agency staff were found to be inadequately trained.

Due to a lack of beds, some patients were admitted to wards which were not appropriate for their needs, while the hospital persistently failed to meet targets on waiting times and operations were repeatedly cancelled.

Staff were said to not have time to report incidents, with some senior staff unaware of the most serious.

Barts Health, which also runs Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, St Bartholomews in The City, Newham University Hospital, Mile End Hospital and the London Chest Clinic, reported a debt of around £63million last year.

This is believed to have risen to around £90million due to liabilities relating to a private finance initiative for redevelopment.

Trust chairman, Stpehen O'Brien, chief executive Peter Morris and chief nurse Professor Kay Riley all stepped down recently.  

The Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said: “Our inspection of Whipps Cross University Hospital has highlighted a number of serious concerns surrounding poor leadership, a culture of bullying, and low staffing which has led to risks to patient safety.

"I note that many of the failings which we found on inspection in November 2013 are still not resolved.  In some areas there has been little progress - and this has been affecting the quality and safety of patient care.     

"I know that Whipps Cross University Hospital has been through a period of considerable upheaval, with the reorganisation and re-grading  of nursing posts in 2013 still affecting morale even now.  I do appreciate how unsettling this can be. There is a large section of the population in East London who depend on this hospital and they are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care.

"Barts Health NHS Trust has not given sufficient priority to safety. We found frequent staff shortages and a reliance on agency and locum staff that increased the risk to patients.  The trust must get a grip on what is happening here and on the low staff morale.  

"We have recently inspected two of the trust's other hospitals and I will have more to say when we report on our findings from those inspections.  In the meantime I will continue to monitor how Barts Health NHS Trust manages to deal with these longstanding issues.  We will return in due course to check that the trust has made the immediate improvements we require.

“I have highlighted my concerns about the quality and safety of care at Whipps Cross to the Trust Development Authority.”