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A troubled hospital trust, blighted by reports of bullying, has been issued a warning about staffing levels at one of its hospitals.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an unannounced inspection at Good Hope in Sutton Coldfield.

Heartlands Hospital, also part of University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB), was also inspected amid concerns about children's services.

The trust said it fully accepted the inspectors' findings.

The trust, one of the largest NHS trusts in England, has been heavily criticised with repeated cases of bullying and a toxic environment being revealed in a report by Prof Mike Bewick, published in March.

The CQC's inspection in December happened a week after a joint investigation by BBC West Midlands and Newsnight revealed a climate of fear at the trust was putting patients at risk.

UHB's chief executive, Jonathan Brotherton, said the trust was already working through the report's recommendations.

Healthwatch Birmingham and Healthwatch Solihull said it was concerned by the latest findings.

Following the visit, the CQC issued the hospital trust with a warning notice, meaning it had until 15 March to make the "significant improvements" that had been identified.

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Inspectors said when they visited in December they found "staff working extremely hard under pressure" but highlighted the "compassion and kindness" towards patients.

"However, we weren't assured leaders were appropriately managing priorities and issues, or reducing risks to keep people safe in medical care at Good Hope Hospital, particularly around staffing levels, which must be addressed as a matter of urgency," said Charlotte Rudge, the CQC's deputy director of operations in the Midlands.

"Across all the services we visited, there wasn't enough nursing staff to keep people safe and to provide the right care and treatment," she added.

The report also raised concerns about how staff worked together at Good Hope, saying morale was "noticeably low" and the service "struggled to meet demand".

BBC Midlands health correspondent, Michele Paduano, said the hospital had a high turnover of staff, particularly in nursing, reaching more than 13.5% each year with some areas hitting 20%.

"High pressure wards have more safety issues and staff sustain more injuries - so leave. It's a vicious circle," he said.

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Staffing and morale was also highlighted as an issue at Heartlands Hospital in Bordesley Green, with inspectors also finding there was not enough suitable equipment to enable staff to safely care for patients and medicines were not always managed well.

It found the service did not always have enough nursing staff on children's wards with staffing levels regularly below planned levels, causing "significant stress to some staff".

Both hospitals, as well as the trust, are currently rated as requiring improvement by the CQC. As the inspections were targeted, the overall rating, which was last re. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk

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