Croydon University Hospital has been named as one of six "high-risk" hospitals prioritised for a tough new regime of inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Croydon Health Services NHS Trust will come under scrutiny from "a small army" of inspectors later this year after the CQC announced a radical shake-up of the way it monitors hospital standards.

The overhaul, revealed yesterday by Sir Mike Richards, the CQC's chief inspector of hospitals, will mean trusts are inspected more rigorously, for longer and by significantly larger teams.

Mr Richards identified 18 NHS trusts of varying quality to be the first inspected.

Croydon Health Services is one of six of those - also including Barking, Havering and Redbridge; Barts; Nottingham University; South London Healthcare; and Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch - suspected of providing poorer service. 

It was assessed on 150 categories including complaints, avoidable infections and 'never events' safety scares so serious they should never happen.

Karen Breen, deputy chief executive and chief operating officer at Croydon Health Services, said she was pleased the trust would have the opportunity to demonstrate recent improvements.

She said: "By looking at what we do well and what we can do better, we will ensure we provide high quality compassionate care for patients wherever they use services.

"This year we are investing around £6.8m into improving services across the organisation, including the recruitment of more nurses, consultants, midwives and health visitors.

"We will be able to give the inspection teams evidence of where we have already made improvements in key areas - most notably in our waiting for treatment times with 94.7 per cent of people waiting less than the national 18 week target and our success since April of meeting the national A&E target of seeing 95 per cent of people who come to A&E within 4 hours."

The trust said it had been identified as high risk predominantly because of concerns flagged in last year's national inpatient survey.

The CQC is expected to inspect Croydon University Hospital between August and December this year.

The 15-strong inspection team, headed by clinical staff and including doctors, nurses and trained members of the public, will look at eight key service areas including accident and emergency, maternity, paediatrics, elderly care and end-of-life care.

Each trust will receive an Ofsted-style rating of either outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Mr Richards said: "There is too much variation in the quality of care patients receive - poor hospitals will need to up their game and learn from the best. I will not tolerate poor or mediocre care.

"These new-style inspections will allow us to get a much more detailed picture of care in hospitals than has ever been possible before in England.

"Inspections will be supported by an improved method for identifying risks and with much more information direct from patients and their families, and hospital staff.

He added: "We have a limited number of people so far that we can build upon, we’re wanting to build up this small army, as I’ve described it.

"So we are very keen to have practising clinicians but alongside them perhaps some recently-retired ones, and also patients and carers who want to put themselves forward for this important business."