North West London Hospitals NHS Trust has been identified as presenting high risks for patients, according to a report by regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The trust, which manages Central Middlesex, Northwick Park and St Mark’s hospitals, has been flagged up by research designed to highlight where hospital inspectors need to focus their attention.

It has been named in a list of 11 trusts in London, almost half in the city, which compares unfavourably to the picture nationwide, where trusts with the most serious level of concern accounted for around one in four of all.

In the worst cases, the CQC found trusts to have “elevated risk” around in-hospital mortality and around the proportion of reported patient safety incidents that are harmful.

The CQC ranked trusts in six bands, with band one representing those where there was the highest risk and band six the lowest.

Four NHS hospital trusts in London were rated in band one, and seven were placed in band two including NWL Hospitals NHS Trust.

At one of the four worst-performing, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, risks were found on 13 indicators. Significantly, the trust had “elevated risk” around A&E waiting times more than four hours and in-hospital mortality.

Croydon Health Services NHS Trust was found to have “elevated risk” around staff providing suitable emotional support, as reported by patients, and around serious education concerns.

Patient confidence in nurses and whistleblowing alerts were at “elevated risk” at Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and at South London Healthcare NHS Trust - which has now been dissolved - “elevated risk” was observed around the proportion of reported safety incidents that are harmful.

The three hospitals formerly run by South London are now under the care of different trusts.

The CQC is using the data - called intelligent monitoring - to inform its new inspection regime of all NHS trusts by December 2015.

Following these detailed inspections, trusts will be given Ofsted-style school ratings of “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement” and “inadequate”.

The CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said: “As a doctor, I liken intelligent monitoring to a screening test; our inspection combined with intelligent monitoring provides the diagnosis, following which we make a judgment, which will in turn lead to action.

“Our intelligent monitoring helps to give us a good picture of risk within trusts, showing us where we need to focus our inspections.”

The CQC analysed all 161 trusts and placed 44 on the top two bands, classing them as those with the most serious level of concern.