British life-style: Rats and cockroaches found in hospitals

Rat infested hospitals are having to fork out millions for pest control bills amid growing concerns about outdated buildings, ‘Mirror’ informs.

Cockroaches on wards, maggots in a mortuary, rodents in a kitchen and ants "coming through the ceiling" are just some of the issues reported according to NHS England data.

More than 18,000 pest problems were reported across NHS hospitals in England over last three years, according to data obtained under freedom of information requests by the Liberal Democrats. One hospital said "black insects are biting the legs of staff", that the "whole building has a fly infestation", and animal noises were coming from inside the walls. Meanwhile, another hospital found rat droppings in a body bag, while another found a dead headless pigeon.

The bill for dealing with these problems was more than £3 million. But not all hospitals responded to the data requests, meaning the scale of the problem could be much bigger.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said: "These are shocking revelations and another sign our hospitals are no longer up to scratch for sick patients and hardworking staff. In people's hour of need, they need to be safe from bugs and rodents. Instead, wards are falling apart at the seams, with foul pests allowed to roam freely. This is a national scandal.

"Conservative ministers must act now by bringing forward emergency funds for crumbling and unhygienic hospitals. This Conservative Government has left the NHS in decay, with soaring repair bills. This madness has to end. It is time the NHS was put first, starting with making hospitals a safe and clean place again."

The party did report that one trust noted 156 incidents of pests, when in fact these were proactive weekly callouts over the last three years. It comes after the Tories were forced to admit the Government will not build 40 new hospitals by 2030, as promised by ex-PM Boris Johnson.

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