Dozens of operations and hundreds of chemotherapy appointments had to be cancelled after IT systems crashed at an east London hospital trust.

Barts Health Trust, which runs Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone, had what it described as a “major computer equipment failure”, affecting pathology and imaging systems on Thursday, April 20. 

As a result, the trust was forced to cancel 136 operations across its five hospitals, as well as “several hundred” chemotherapy appointments. 

The system failure affected a number of IT applications, which prevented staff viewing images vital to some patients’ cases.

Barts Health said chemotherapy prescribing and some other services dependant on the computer systems had been restored, although some are still unavailable.

A spokesman for the trust said: “A major computer equipment failure on April 20 resulted in a number of IT applications being unavailable to staff.

“Unfortunately, it has been necessary to cancel 136 operations, representing about 2.5 per cent of our usual weekly in-patient activity.

“Several hundred chemotherapy appointments have been cancelled, however we have now successfully restored chemotherapy prescribing.

“Clinical teams have completed a patient-by-patient review to ensure that the appropriate course of action is taken for each of them, endeavouring to keep the disruption to an absolute minimum. 

“We apologise to those affected and will be in touch to reschedule their appointment for as soon as we are able.

“We continue to work urgently to maintain the operational resilience of our services, using tried and tested contingency plans to keep our patients safe.”

Whipps Cross has faced string of difficulties in recent years and was placed into special measures after a damning report by healthcare watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2015.

Findings of a fresh inspection, published in December last year, found improvements had been made at the hospital, but still rated the site "inadequate" overall.

The most recent report found the hospital’s A&E department still required improvement, with patients waiting more than double the 15-minute target time for an initial assessment.

End-of-life care was also judged to be poor, with inspectors noting they saw dying patients in visible pain who did not get help from staff.

The hospital did however, receive "good" ratings for its maternity and gynaecology services and its care of children and young people.

Barts Health has also recently announced plans for a £500 million redevelopment of the Whipps Cross site.

If approved, the plans would see the current Edwardian era hospital buildings replaced by new, state-of-the-art wards.

Health trust bosses have also confirmed part of the hospital campus is likely to be used to develop “hundreds” of new homes.