Health services in Croydon have a “poor reporting culture” and are not sufficiently transparent about mistakes, according to a new report.

Croydon Health Services NHS Trust scored the worst possible rating in a league table, based on openness and transparency, published by the NHS Trust Development Authority.

The “learning from mistakes league”, which ranked all 230 trusts, was among new measures designed to improve patient safety announced by Health secretary Jeremy Hunt on Wednesday.

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Some 120 trusts were rated as outstanding or good, 78 were identified as cause for “significant concerns” and 32, including Croydon Health Services, had the worst rating of “poor reporting culture”.

Croydon was ranked 199th out of all NHS trusts.

Dr Nnenna Osuji, the trust’s medical director, said the number of “incidents” the trust reports has risen 21 per cent in the last three years.

She added: “This does not mean more incidents are occurring – it means that we are raising awareness to keep patient safety number one.

“We have introduced new systems and anonymous reporting to encourage all incidents to be recorded.

“Three key messages are also published every week within the trust to share our findings from incidents and complaints.

“We are absolutely determined to be open about what we are doing to improve our care.”

Last week the trust admitted it had breached its duty of care to mother-of-two Fauzia Khan, 43, by failing to scan her unborn child when she attended the hospital’s emergency department with abdominal pains and bleeding.

She died three days later of multiple organ failure after the foetus became infected, causing sepsis.

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Mr Hunt said health services need to “unshackle” themselves from a “quick-fix blame culture” and acknowledge that mistakes happen.

He added: “It is a scandal that every week there are potentially 150 avoidable deaths in our hospitals and it is up to us all to make the need for whistleblowing and secrecy a thing of the past as we reform the NHS and its values and move from blaming to learning.

“Today we take a step forward to building a new era of openness and the safest healthcare system in the world.”

Last year, the health secretary came under fire for rejecting calls to intervene over allegations Croydon Health Services had fired a consultant doctor for whistleblowing about patient safety.

The trust has since successfully appealed an employment tribunal ruling that it unfairly sacked Dr Kevin Beatt, paving way for a fresh tribunal.

Under the new safety measures announced last week, trusts will be asked to publish a charter for openness and transparency to give staff clear expectations of how they will be treated if they witness clinical errors.

NHS England will also work with the Royal College of Physicians to develop a standardised method for reviewing the records of patients who have died in hospital.