Bosses at the hospital have decided to close the forum on its intranet site as the content, which included inappropriate comments about members of staff, could raise human resources issues and showed staff were not working.

The forum was set up so staff could keep in touch and place items for sale. It was also used as an internal swap shop for things like printers and scanners, but while those areas of the forum remain open, the chat facility has been removed.

A hospital spokesman said: “The content was becoming suspect and a bit near the mark. Some slightly offensive comments were made about other members of staff.

‘like kids’

“People were using it a bit like kids in a classroom and it was getting a bit out of hand.”

There had been warnings in the past that the facility would be removed, and it has been axed once before. Because of the problems, staff were not allowed to post comments anonymously.

The spokesman added: “We are quite a large site, and staff at one part of the building may never see other staff, so it is a nice way to keep in touch during the day.

“I do not think it was used by a great number of people, it seemed to be about half a dozen staff.

“However, a couple of things were started on there, and from a management point of view it was thought it was getting out of control.”

The staff involved had been spoken to, and the chat forum would remain closed until further notice. No disciplinary action was taken.