Around half of staff at an east London NHS trust said they were happy with the standard of care it provides, according to a survey.

The NHS Staff Survey results for 2021 were published, with workers at trusts across the country quizzed on a range of topics.

Only 53.3 per cent of 3,125 respondents from Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "if a friend or relative needed treatment I would be happy with the standard of care provided by this organisation'".

The number fell more than 6pc on 2020 and was 13.6pc lower than the national average.

Fewer than half of the staff (49.2pc) surveyed said they would recommend the trust, which runs Queen's Hospital in Romford and King George Hospital in Goodmayes, as a place to work.

The trust ranked worst in the country when benchmarked against "similar organisations" for staff answering the question 'In the last 12 months have you personally experienced discrimination at work from manager / team leader or other colleagues?'"

More than 17pc of 3,111 respondents said "yes" well above the average of 8.8pc.

The number of BHRUT staff who agreed or strongly agreed with the statement 'there are enough staff at this organisation for me to do my job properly' fell from 32.7pc in 2020 to 25.9pc in 2021.

Royal College of Nursing's London operational manager Mark Farmer said: "There simply are not enough nurses in London.

"Imagine trying to look after patients when you don’t have enough colleagues to help you.

"Care is being left undone and patient safety may be compromised."

Kathryn Halford, BHRUT chief nurse, called nurses "the backbone of our workforce".

She said: "We have introduced a number of initiatives in recent years to help us recruit more and retain our nurses.

“In the safe staffing review carried out by our nursing workforce hub last October, it recommended a further increase in nursing posts across our hospitals - these are now being recruited to.

"We have also recruited more than 500 international nurses since November 2019.”

%image(14869120, type="article-full", alt="Head nurse Kathryn Halford said BHRUT is doing "everything we can" to keep its hospitals safe.")

A spokesperson for the NHS in London said: “The nursing workforce in London grew by over 2.3pc over the last year.

"We are committed to reducing vacancies, including through international recruitment and increasing wellbeing support for existing staff to boost retention.”

The Department of Health has not responded to a request for comment.