Nearly half the workers at Oxfordshire's major hospitals say they work in dirty and cramped conditions.

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust has admitted that space is so restricted at the John Radcliffe that they are close to "breaching some health and safety regulations".

The problem was highlighted in a survey of more than 2,500 doctors, nurses, managers and clinical professionals at Oxford's John Radcliffe, Churchill, and Radcliffe Infirmary, and The Horton, Banbury.

The Improving Lives questionnaire also showed that staff were often threatened by abusive behaviour at work and that the majority of employees thought the trust, which is responsible for the four sites, was bureaucratic and not open and honest. The survey follows news in the Oxford Mail this week that inspectors who visited the John Radcliffe believed its conditions are "poor".

While spot-checks made by special Patient Environment Action Teams said the Churchill, Radcliffe Infirmary and The Horton were "acceptable", they said more work needed to be done at the JR.

The trust board is now planning ways to combat workers' concerns.

Personnel director Mike Fleming was encouraged that staff enjoyed their jobs, but admitted that space was a problem.

He said: "It is an issue. If we take the JR, which was designed in the '60s and built in the '70s, it's reached its absolute dimensions with additional staff and buildings, and it would be silly not to acknowledge staff views about space.

"We are in fact borderline in breaching some health and safety regulations. We have an improvement group which knows where pressure points are and tries to deal with them."

Mr Fleming said that the NHS was seen as bureaucratic and that the trust was trying to introduce a culture of openness and honesty.

He also explained there was an active training programme, run by security company Group 4, to help staff deal with challenging behaviour in hospitals.

He said: "We have a very clear message of zero tolerance. We have posters up across the sites explaining that we will take legal action if staff are injured or property is damaged."

The trust will ask staff to fill in a new survey every year in a bid to to continue improving working conditions.