Patients and visitors at Ealing Hospital, West London, spoke yesterday of the hospital’s “dirty, ghastly” reputation, which contributed to it achieving the worst score for overall care in the hospital league tables.

Those who had received treatment yesterday could not fault the care they received from doctors and nurses. But most patients expressed no surprise that it rated among the worst-performing trusts on more than half of the issues in the Healthcare Commission’s national inpatient survey.

Many said they would not wish friends or relatives to be treated at the 358-bed district hospital, which covers a catchment area of 300,000 patients from the middle-class suburbs of Ealing Broadway to the large South Asian population of Southall.

Max Singh, 26, was discharged yesterday after a three-day stay for treatment on a recurring abscess on his arm. He said: “I’ve been coming here now for three to four years and although things have improved in that time, there’s still a perception that it’s not a great place to be. My missus is expecting a baby but I won’t bring her here. I’d rather go to Hammersmith, even though it’s miles down the road. You hear so many gruesome stories about dirt, MRSA, and people remember it, that’s how it’s got a reputation.”

Other patients complained about the shabby, concrete ugliness of the nine-storey hospital, opened in 1979, with dirty windows and spots of blood drying on the pavement outside.

The trust called its results in the national patients survey “disappointing”, but said it was carrying out its own surveys of patients.

Explore Health

• Expert Advice

• Health Features

• Mental Health

• Alternative Medicine

• Child Health

• Health Club