The London Ambulance Service will become the first NHS ambulance trust in the country to be placed in special measures.

Inspectors found a culture of bullying and major problems with poor ambulance response times at the trust, which is the biggest in the UK.

England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said he was recommending the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust (LAS) be put in special measures as a necessary step for improvement.

“The trust has been performing poorly on response times since March 2014,” he said. “This is a very serious problem, which the trust clearly isn’t able to address alone, and which needs action to put right.

“The frontline staff who Care Quality Commission inspectors talked to and observed in their work were overwhelmingly dedicated, hard-working and compassionate, which is why I have rated this service ‘good’ for caring.

“However, these staff were not being properly supported to do their jobs. Some reported a culture of harassment and bullying and we found that in many cases there just weren’t enough properly trained staff, or that the proper equipment wasn’t available to them.”

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CQC inspectors found dirty equipment, a lack of training and poor leadership. Bullying and harassment was a major problem – an external report commissioned by the trust last year found it was widespread. There was also a shortage of trained paramedics, with some junior staff being sent out with little supervision.

The staff sickness rate has been above the average for England since May 2014 and has continued to rise.

The CQC said: “We found a large number of frontline staff to be demoralised. Most ambulance crews told us the organisation was a good place to work in the past, but now they felt unsupported by the service and were forced to work with a new rota system which was very demanding with little or no rest between shifts.”

The response time for the most urgent “Category A” calls is the worst in the country. Since May 2014, there has been a significant decline in the number of Category A calls attended within the target time of eight minutes and the trust has not hit its target once.

Most ambulance stations inspected by the CQC were unclean, with some areas and some medical supplies covered in dust.

Rehana Azam, the GMB union’s national officer, said “The underlying problem is a shortage of staff. There is a seriously high vacancy rate in the LAS and other ambulance services. We are pleased CQC has identified this and perhaps now it can be addressed.”

LAS’s chief executive, Dr Fionna Moore, said: “While we are pleased that our caring and compassionate staff have been recognised in this report, we are sorry we have fallen short of some of the standards CQC and Londoners expect of us. As the newly appointed chief executive, I am completely focused on addressing the challenges highlighted.

“We would like to reassure Londoners that we always prioritise our response to our most critically ill and injured patients and, in the event of a major incident, we are ready to respond.”