A healthcare watchdog has issued another damning report into Whipps Cross Hospital after inspectors saw dying patients left in “visible pain”.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the Leytonstone hospital “inadequate” in a fresh report published today (Thursday, December 15).

CQC inspectors, who visited the hospital in June, highlighted significant failings in the way emergency services, surgery, critical care, end-of-life care and outpatients were dealt with.

The hospital’s A&E department was found to need improvement, with patients waiting more than double the 15-minute target time for an initial assessment.

End-of-life care was also judged to be poor, with CQC inspectors noting they saw dying patients in visible pain who did not get help from staff.

The report said: “We observed some patients were visibly in pain, but staff did not respond to this by providing them with adequate analgesia.

“There were examples of lack of compassionate care.

“One patient looked dirty with stains all down the front of their nightwear and staff had neither noticed it nor took any actions to wash and care for the patient.”

Surgery services at the hospital were rated inadequate, with inspectors ruling staff were not learning from incidents or complaints.

The CQC also concluded there was a poor level of communication between surgery staff across wards and surgical infection data was not effectively recorded.

The hospital did however, receive “good” ratings for its maternity and gynaecology services and its care of children and young people.

Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs Whipps Cross, said the report showed the hospital had made “significant progress” since previous CQC inspections.

The centre has previously been rated inadequate by inspectors in March 2015, when a scathing report criticised the poor quality of care and a “culture of bullying” among staff.

Barts Health chief executive, Alwen Williams, said: “This report makes clear that the quality of care for patients at our hospital is getting better all the time.

"We still have much to do and we must tackle all the areas where we are still letting our patients down, as well as taking inspiration from where we are doing well.

“I am confident that Barts Health is now on the right track and with the support of our partners and our committed workforce we will continue to improve."

However, Waltham Forest council has hit out at the trust, claiming improvement at the hospital has been too slow.

The council also called for the centre to be completely redeveloped in order to provide a better standard of care for patients.

Cabinet member for health, Cllr Ahsan Khan, said: “We are of course disappointed by the CQC’s findings.

“Our expectation after the last inspection was that improvements would be delivered rapidly to better meet the standards of care our residents and patients deserve.

“While there has been improvement in several areas, it’s clear that progress has been too slow.

“This report only strengthens our argument that Whipps Cross Hospital needs to be rebuilt to create a 21st Century hospital, which can fully meet the needs of our diverse and growing population.”