Hospital bosses in south-east London have been told services need to improve for the fourth time in five years.

The Care Quality Commission has told the trust running the Queen Elizabeth and Lewisham hospitals that services still require improvement after finding numerous failings.

Inspectors rated the safety, effectiveness, responsiveness and leadership of services as ‘requiring improvement’, but said caring was ‘good’.

The trust was last inspected in 2017, when it was again told it needed to improve.

Greenwich and Lewisham NHS Trust chief executive Ben Travis said services had shown signs of improvement during that time – but accepted there was still a long way to go.

MORE - Lewisham and Greenwich NHS paying to keep EU staff post-Brexit

“While the trust’s overall rating from the inspection remains ‘requires improvement’, the CQC found many improvements since their previous inspection,” he said.

“The CQC also commented on how caring they found our staff, with the trust’s rating in the caring domain improving to ‘good’.

“While the CQC noted there is more to do, they said that there are positive signs that we are addressing the challenges we face.

“The report shows that we are moving in the right direction, and I’d like to thank all our staff for their ongoing hard work and commitment to patient care.”

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust serves a population of half a million people across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Bexley and Greenwich.

Inspectors said in their report: “There was a relatively new executive team in place and they were beginning to address the many challenges facing the trust.

MORE - Queen Elizabeth Hospital: NHS boss on why patients treated in corridors

“The trust had been subject to a financial investigation by NHSI which was completed by the time of the inspection.”

Inspectors raised concerns over staff training, low morale at Queen Elizabeth, incident reports and how medicine is stored.

“The trust was still grappling with managing patient flow which was impacting on the responsiveness in the emergency departments, particularly at QEH where on occasion patients were cared for in corridors,” inspectors said.

Mr Travis said last week a major challenge for the trust continues to be recruiting and retaining staff.