West Middlesex Hospital today said plans were in place to improve reporting of safety breaches after its whistleblowing policy came under fire.
A hospital spokesman said it was disappointed with the red rating, which it insisted did not mean patients were being put at risk.
They said it had a culture of encouraging staff, patients and carers to report any safety concerns and had only today (Tuesday, June 26) brought medics and patients together to discuss how practices could be improved.
A spokesman for West Mid added: "We welcome the publication of new patient safety indicators on the NHS Choices website. This allows patients, their carers and the public to compare hospital services easily and is part of the NHS response to the Francis report, which called for greater openness and transparency in the health service.
"Although we are disappointed at being rated red for potential under-reporting of patient safety incidents, this does not mean that we are providing unsafe care or that we are not actively encouraging, and learning from, the reporting of issues related to patient safety.
"We have plans in place, through our Patient Safety Forum, for the coming year to work further with staff to ensure a culture of reporting incidents is maintained and increased and that these incidents are reviewed, addressed and changes implemented in a timely way.
"Our incident reporting system has recently been upgraded to make it easier for staff to report incidents and we have already seen an increase in reporting. We aim to provide prompt feedback to the people reporting and involved in these incidents to further encourage openness and transparency."
