A vicious culture of bullying at an ambulance trust led to some emergency call handlers attempting suicide, leaked reports claim.

The allegations published in The Daily Telegraph today from reports of a independent investigation state staff working at South East Coast Ambulance Service's (Secamb) operations centre in Coxheath were living in a 'culture of fear', in which they subjected to a campaign of harassment and abuse.

Documents obtained by the paper also allege a senior manager was having affairs with young women he worked with, acting to protect staff who doctored figures and seeking to ruin the reputations of whistleblowers.

The documents state at least two female members of staff attempted suicide after they became victims of bullying and another considered deliberately crashing her car to get away from the abuse.

Others are said to have been under such pressure they were unable to concentrate on dealing with emergency calls.

It is alleged there was a culture of fear and nepotism at the trust's operations centre that focused more on achieving targets than looking after patients, while bosses played 'psychological games' with some staff members.

Female emergency call handlers were alleged to have been called “f------ c----”, while those aged around 40 were told “the oldies have to go in the end”, according to the reports.

Internal investigations are said to name the former head of the trust, Paul Sutton and several managers in connection with bullying.

But Mr Sutton said he stood by his record and refuted the allegations.

The GMB union has called on Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health to intervene at the scandal-hit trust.

Gary Palmer, GMB regional organiser, said: “Despite the outcome of several inquiries and investigations having named individual managers responsible, not only in orchestrating a systemic bullying culture at the trust, but them subsequently covering up and protecting those responsible for horrific and cowardly but devastating acts of bullying and harassment upon staff at Coxheath have not only not had action taken against them as recommended, but have enjoyed promotions and impunity.

“This is an absolute disgrace, workplace bullying is bad enough at anytime, but the scale and intensity of the bullying endured by staff at Coxheath is shocking even now."

A spokesman for Secamb told KentOnline: "The article in The Telegraph covers a range of historic allegations, most of which have been investigated and dealt with. Others are unsubstantiated, with no evidence to support them.

“We take the issue of bullying and harassment very seriously and have been working hard to address this area of concern which was highlighted by the CQC in its report on the Trust last year.

"This work includes improving the internal avenues for serious concerns to be raised and more structured support for staff.