THE chief executive of the beleaguered South London Health Trust has criticised staff who have made public their concerns about the trust and hospital conditions.

Dr Chris Streather’s criticism came in a message to staff at the trust’s three hospitals, following press reports about equipment shortages, lack of beds and clinical risks to patients.

Doctors also raised their fears with Old Bexley and Sidcup MP James Brokenshire, who has reported the trust to the Health Department and the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Disaffected staff have now alleged the cash-strapped trust is to pay out more than £150,000 a month to hire three mobile operating theatres with at least one member of the supplier’s staff, for the Queen Mary’s Hospital site in Sidcup.

These will be used to deal with planned surgery cases coming from the Princess Royal Hospital in Farnborough and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich.

At the same time the trust, which was £43m in the red last year and has arranged for a £36m overspend this year, has mothballed three state-of-the-art operating theatres at Orpington Hospital.

The trust says the move is necessary to make sure there is enough A&E capacity for the extra winter demand and says it is paying standard hire and staff rates.

Dr Streather has described staff leaking inside information about working conditions within the trust as “ungenerous”.

He said there was a process for reporting their concerns internally rather than making them public.

The trust’s consultants have also received a letter reminding them of the correct way to raise their worries.

It has accepted there have been problems with ordering medical supplies which have now been resolved.

And it also admitted “There are some colleagues who are uncomfortable with the scale of the changes we are making.”

But it said latest figures showed the trust now had the lowest MRSA rate in the country and mortality rates had dropped by 30 per cent in the last year.

A spokesman for the CQC said it was expecting a report from the trust at the end of this month on its progress on the plan for improvement.

He added: “We are continuing to monitor the trust closely.

“Any further concerns raised will be followed up and will form part of future reviews we will be carrying out, which may include unannounced site visits.”

Bexley councillor Ross Downing who chairs the council’s health scrutiny committee said she was “very concerned and disappointed at the latest allegations”.

She added: “The safety of Bexley residents is paramount and if the trust has to be investigated, then investigated it will be.”

She also welcomed the possibility of unannounced visits by the CQC.