Three female NHS workers will return to an east London police station on Friday after being arrested over allegations of assault against elderly patients at Whipps Cross University Hospital.

The Crown Prosecution Service is currently deciding whether charges can be brought against the three healthcare assistants who have been suspended from their work at the hospital in Whipps Cross Road, Leytonstone.

Allegations of physical and verbal abuse on the hospital’s Beech ward were raised with senior nursing staff in April.

The three women, two of whom are in their 30s, were arrested on suspicion of common assault of a number of elderly patients and released on bail.

No other details of the third woman have been provided by the police.

The ward was closed to new admissions on April 27 and closed completely as an elderly ward on May 18.

It re-opened as a general admissions ward with different staff on May 20.

A Barts Health NHS Trust spokesman said: “The hospital informed the Care Quality Commission, the Met Police and Waltham Forest council’s adult safeguarding team, and has continued to work with these organisations since.

“The hospital contacted patients, or their families where this was more appropriate, who had been cared for on the ward between mid-February and mid-April when the allegations were raised.

“The majority of the patients or relatives we have spoken with were very happy with the standards of care they received.

“No formal complaints have been raised with Barts Health by any of these patients or their relatives.”

A Trust investigation is ongoing.