South East Coast Ambulance Service is to be placed into special measures after inspectors branded the trust inadequate.

Secamb's poor emergency and urgent care came in for particular criticism, with the inspection team deeming it unsafe and badly led.

Dangers highlighted included a lack of reporting, understanding or learning from incidents, which were often not investigated properly.

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And low attendance at infection control training meant hand hygiene practices were 'inconsistent'.

However, inspectors were quick to praise front line staff, whom they described showing kindness and understanding even when faced by volatile patients.

Professor Sir Mike Richards, Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: "It is to the credit of the staff that they have continued to provide a vital service to the people of Kent, Surrey and Sussex – dealing with almost a million emergency calls a year alone.

"Throughout our inspection we heard how staff were giving their best, treating patients kindly, with dignity, care and compassion."

In the report, much of the blame has fallen on poor leadership, with inspectors accusing the executive team of infighting, and highlighting a culture of bullying and harassment.

In February the service was embroiled in scandal when it emerged the Trust had deliberately delayed some ambulances responding to NHS 111 call-outs in order to meet targets under a secret policy.

This led to the departure of chairman Tony Thorne in March and chief executive Paul Sutton left by mutual agreement in May.

The trust was benchmarked as the worst performing nationally for answering 999 calls within 5 seconds.

Trust performance was as low as 95% within 80 seconds during March 2016.

Professor Richards continued: "It was apparent that the leadership had not been supporting staff to do their jobs effectively.

"Staff told us there was a culture of harassment and bullying. We found in many cases there weren’t enough properly trained staff, or that the proper equipment wasn’t available to them.

"At the time of the inspection, we found evidence that senior executives were not always pulling in the same direction.

"However, improvements are being formulated by an experienced interim chair and the executive has been recently strengthened by new appointments.

"While we have significant concerns about the performance of the ambulance service, I want to provide some reassurance.

"Once care arrives, it is of a good standard – with dedicated and caring call handlers, ambulance crew, paramedics and other frontline staff working hard to ensure this.

"Secondly, the trust are taking urgent steps needed and some improvements have already been made - to ensure that everyone who relies on this service receives excellent, timely care."

Steve Inett from Healthwatch Kent said, "Naturally we are extremely disappointed to hear today’s announcement. Our ambulance trust has hit the headlines on several occasions in recent months and not for positive reasons.

It is now imperative that the trust works with patients and local Healthwatch to make immediate improvements and that the public are reassured.

"People reading this can help in two ways. Firstly, please share your experience of the ambulance service with us and secondly volunteer with Healthwatch and help to improve services."

Inspectors said the trust has been through a period of "significant upheaval" following changes in its senior leadership.

Secamb's Acting Chief Executive, Geraint Davies said: “While we are pleased that the dedication and care of our staff is highlighted as good in this report, we are sorry that we have not met the standards expected in a number of other areas.

"Following initial feedback from the CQC we have already been working on and implementing a number of improvements.

"I would like to reassure everyone we serve that I, along with my senior team, am committed and focused on ensuring these necessary changes continue.

"We are determined to implement the changes required to restore confidence in our service."