TORIES allowed a notorious hospital to get worse despite knowing why it had failed, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham claimed yesterday.

The Labour frontbencher used an urgent question in the Commons to blast ministers for presiding over a crisis that saw 20 hospitals plunge into special measures.

A report published on Tuesday slammed Barts Health NHS Trust for a catalogue of failures at Whipps Cross Hospital, including overcrowded wards and a culture of bullying staff, and placed the east London operation under extraordinary supervision.

The Care Quality Commission found that the reorganisation of the trust in 2013 was the “root cause of care ­problems” over the last two years.

Mr Burnham highlighted that the bill for agency staff at the trust had increased by 44 per cent in the last year, indicating staffing problems.

“That is unsustainable — unaffordable — but it is also damaging standards of patient care on the ward and continuity of care,” he said.

He demanded that the government end the suspension of work on a report into NHS management by Tory peer and former Marks and Spencer boss Lord Rose.

“Isn’t it the case that the problems at Whipps Cross have been known for some time and have not just been uncovered this week?” Mr Burnham asked the Commons.

“Isn’t it also true that these problems have been allowed to get worse over the last two years, with 208 serious ­incidents in the last year alone, and that specific warnings have not been acted on?”

But Tory Health Minister Jane Ellison put the blame on the previous Labour government.

“I think you might reflect on your own time in office about reports that didn’t come out at all, in fact, just before the general election,” she said.

“Under the last government, failures of care were swept under the carpet and not acted upon, which led to tragic consequences which we know about.”

Stella Creasy, the local MP, branded Ms Ellison’s response “frankly insulting” and accused her of “playing politics with a hospital that serves our community.”