Just under a fifth of nursing, midwifery and clinical support staff at Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust (BHRUT) are practising without up-to-date training in vital subjects like resuscitation, drug dosage and blood transfusion.

Figures obtained by the Recorder show a total of 522 workers in the staff group of 2842 have missed their annual deadline for completing “clinical mandatory training” updates – meaning they are not competent to practice under the trust’s own guidelines.

Of the 328 midwives at BHRUT, 22 per cent do not hold up-to-date training certificates in supposedly mandatory topics like recognising seriously ill women, resuscitating women and babies, and screening during pregnancy for abnormalities.

The Queen’s maternity department has come under fire in recent months after an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) concluded women were receiving “poor care”.

Med Buck, chairman of healthcare feedback group Havering Link, said the figures were “unacceptable”.

“Havering Link is very concerned and alarmed that BHRUT is failing to meet both statutory and mandatory training requirements. By allowing staff who are not updated with their training to work, the CEO and management of BHRUT are putting lives of patients at risk.

“It is not surprising there have been so many issues with quality and safety recently. On our Enter and View visit in October 2011 we identified gaps in training and we made recommendations to the trust. It appears there has not been much improvement since.”

BHRUT’s education director Alison Crombie said: “The trust is committed to ensuring we provide the very best patient care and that all staff are fully compliant with their training requirements.

“We have carried out a major piece of work to review training in all areas, and are also taking part in a national piece of work to review statutory and mandatory training.

“Occasionally staff who are on maternity leave or long-term sick leave may not be available to update their training as required, and this can skew the figures.”