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Simon Burns, the health minister, said last year that the practice was "not acceptable" and called for any trusts profiting from the arrangement to review their procedures urgently. However, 40 NHS trusts in England, around one in four, are ignoring the rules and earning tens of thousands of pounds in return for displaying advert, or getting information leaflets printed free if they run a "no win, no fee" advertisement on the back.

"Patients should be able to focus on receiving treatment and getting better without having to be hounded by lawyers or adverts displayed in A&E departments."

Department of Health guidance published almost a decade ago states that there is "no place" for such advertising in the health service.

Latest figures show that negligence claims against the NHS have risen by 20 per cent in just one year. A total of £22.7 billion, nearly one fifth of the health service's annual budget, has had to be set aside to pay compensation to thousands of patients. Doctors' lawyers said the scale of the claims against the NHS was "jaw-dropping".

Andrew Bridgen, an MP who has campaigned to end A&E advertising by law firms, said: "I think that hospitals that allow advertising by personal injury lawyers are feeding a monster that's devouring the NHS."

Many NHS trusts say they are unable to break out of contracts signed with law firms without incurring a financial penalty. The investigation found that some of the contracts run for 10 years and most were entered into after the publication of the initial government guidance to steer clear of the practice.

Some contracts include clauses that do not allow the law firms to take action against the hospital carrying the adverts. This has led to concerns that patients using these firms may not receive proper representation.

Debbie Kendall, a patient who was left wheelchair-bound after a road accident, said her legal team were compromised when dealing with her claim against the hospital, because they had a financial agreement in place.

"I don't see how you can have a lawyer acting in your best interests when they have a financial agreement for their advertising in the hospital," she said.

Deborah Evans, chief executive of The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, said: "If you've been injured the chances are high that you are going to go to a hospital. So actually law firms advertising in hospitals are reaching out to the very people who need them the most."