West Middlesex Hospital is one of the worst managed in the country, a new report has revealed.

An Audit Commission report showed the trust was one of the worst financially managed and it failed to meet the minimum standards.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance said it was disgraceful the hospital could not account for the money and “precious NHS resources” it had been given.

A hospital spokesman admitted it had a few problems with efficiency and patients not turning up for appointments, which are a financial drain on the trust, but insisted the hospital had made improvements over the past year.

The report is the latest blow in what has been a challenging year for the hospital, beginning when chief executive Tara Donnelly stepped down after it emerged that eight patients had to wait more than 12 hours to be admitted to A&E and the relevant authority was not informed.

She was replaced by an interim chief executive, Jacqueline Docherty, and the trust said it had no immediate plans to recruit someone permanently to the post.

According to the report, the hospital scored lowest in the financial reporting and financial standing categories.

The hospital overspent its budget by £3,534,000 which accounts for its financial standing score of one.

Financial reporting relates to the way trusts produce their annual accounts.

They do badly if they do not produce their accounts on time, if there are mistakes, or if they do not keep stakeholders informed of when the accounts are produced.

If the hospital does not improve, it could be vulnerable to a merger or take over.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive at the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “This report paints an indisputably terrible picture of the financial management of West Middlesex Hospital. The fact that the hospital is simply unable to account for the taxpayers' money and precious NHS resources it has been given is disgraceful.

“Patients in the area will be rightly concerned that this rating will also mean sub-standard healthcare, and will want reassurances that the hospital is going to pull its socks up so that their current shambolic financial practices are not perpetuated."”

A hospital spokesman said: “Last year there were numerous pressures on our finances. The number of patients we treated continued to grow but due to pressure on the primary care trust’s finances, funding has not kept pace with our increased activity levels.

“Despite tightening up on our spending and achieving considerable savings, our costs also increased.

“Consequently we failed to deliver our key financial breakeven duty with a deficit of £3.5m.

“This year the trust’s financial performance continues to improve month on month, and we are now forecasting a substantial improvement against our planned £5.75m deficit for the year.”

The other London hospitals which were among the worst managed were Whipps Cross University Hospital, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, North West London Hospitals, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Queen Mary’s Sidcup and Bromley hospitals.