Patient safety at Mount Vernon Hospital has been rated "inadequate"- but health bosses insist the hospital is safe.

Nurse shortages, staff who had not completed mandatory training and delays in arranging follow up appointments were some of the concerns raised by the Care Quality Commission at the Rickmansworth Road hospital.

The hospital failed to meet NHS standards in four out of five key areas when a team from the health watchdog visited in October.

Safety was rated as "inadequate" after the CQC found what health bosses described as "potential risk to patient safety" and one of the examples given was that staff had not attended mandatory training for protecting children.

Inspectors wrote in their report: "A safeguarding audit in July idenftified that records could not confirm whether the child protection register had been checked when necessary.

"Two months after the audit had taken place, the action plan had not been created and no mitigation of the risks had been implemented.

"50 per cent of Patient Group Directions - written instructions for the supply or administration of medicines to groups of patients who may not be individually identified before presentation for treatment- were out of date."

However, care at the hospital was rated as "good".

Shane DeGaris, chief executive at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "We believe we run safe hospitals.

"This is clearly evidenced by our good patient outcomes, key quality performance indicators and positive feedback from patients themselves. Patients should continue to have confidence in our services."

"The CQC found a potential risk to patient safety due to a number of factors including the level of agency staff and the need to improve on safeguarding training.

"We have addressed the issue of training and 92 per cent of staff are now compliant.

"The Trust’s Patient Safety Thermometer (Harm Free Care) currently stands at 95.4 per cent against a national target of 95 per cent and we have been highly commended by Dr Foster for our improvement on weekend mortality rates.

"The most recent national Friends and Family Test results show that 95 per cent of patients would be extremely likely or likely to recommend the Trust to friends and family for care."

Inspectors found that the hospital was "mostly clean" and equipment used on wards was appropriately serviced.

But the report added: "The hospital was unable to cover all shifts with nurses and healthcare assistants as planned. "Some staff had not completed their mandatory training."

Mr DeGaris confirmed there was a shortage of permanent nurses at the hospital, but he told the Watford Observer the hospital trust will be investing more than £600,000 to hire more staff.

He said: "The shortage of permanent nursing staff is a national problem and we have been more reliant on agency staff than we want to be.

"We are now investing an additional £670k for recruitment per year; running monthly fast-track recruitment days and attending more recruitment fairs both here and abroad.

"In the last six months we have recruited 145 medical staff including five doctors, 74 nurses and midwives and 66 Health Care workers."