Queen's Hospital

As the Care Quality Commission’s findings are published this week, it has emerged that the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust (BHRUT) is one of 21 across the country that the government is monitoring over financial difficulties.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “The 21 trusts all have agreements in place with the Department of Health to return them to clinical and financial sustainability. This government is determined to do everything it can to turn these trusts around.”

This week, the South London Healthcare Trust was been placed into “special measures” – known as the unsustainable provider regime.

But the spokesman would not confirm reports that this area’s hospital trust was the next most likely to receive this action.

The trust had annual payments of nearly £50million on its private finance initiative agreed in 2004.

Chief executive Averil Dongworth said: “We do not underestimate the scale of our financial challenge and we are already working with partners to develop the trust’s long-term clinical and financial strategy.”