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.