Workers at a major London hospital have complained about bullying, harassment, racism and sexism during an inspection by the care regulator.
A review of the imaging departments at the Royal London Hospital and Whipps Cross Hospital revealed concerns over the culture of the service and conflict between staff.
Both hospitals are run by Barts Health NHS Trust, one of the largest hospital groups in the country.
On its website the trust said it runs one of the largest imaging departments in the country providing routine x-rays, scans and specialist diagnostics across five sites in London.
In its report the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said: “The service faced significant challenges relating to the culture of the division. There were factions and separate interests within the workforce and nearly all staff suggested that this conflict created a difficult and hostile working environment.
“We were informed of numerous allegations of bullying, harassment, racism, and sexism that had been escalated to requiring intervention from human resources. Staff stated that human resources was not providing adequate resolution to these issues for either frontline staff or the divisional management, and disruption related to individual staff issues remained a source of conflict.”
The watchdog carried out the inspection after concerns were raised about the safety of the service.
Inspectors found equipment repair records were poorly maintained with multiple reports of repairs not being carried out. Staff said it often needed multiple reports to get equipment fixed.
At Whipps Cross Hospital the regulator found old equipment that did not always work, meaning delays for patients and in some cases new equipment had been bought but could not be used as it had not been linked to existing computer systems.
Source: Independent
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