Campaigners to quiz hospital bosses over cleanliness concerns

Campaigners are attending a board meeting of hospital bosses in Nottingham today to raise concerns that cleanliness standards in hospitals has dropped.

Members of campaign group 'Keep Our NHS Public' are hoping to attend a meeting of the Nottingham University Hospital Trust board to put questions to bosses about what they say are 'failures' in keeping hospitals clean.

They claim that external contractor Carillion, which has the contract to clean NUH hospitals, has 'failed to keep wards clean and fulfil the terms of their contract' at the City Hospital in Nottingham.

The campaigners are attending this morning's meeting with overalls, mops, buckets and brooms in protest against privatisation of cleaning services.

They claim that patients and staff have been 'appalled at the deterioration in cleanliness' since Carillion took over.

A report from the NUH in July, did admit that "required cleanliness standards were not being consistently achieved.

It added that 'there were failures in both Carillion (cleaners) and NUH (nurses) elements. There were sporadic failures across many wards."

However, the Trust has responded to accusations that cleaning standards have fallen drastically. They point out that they have introduced new measures to improve cleanliness, including:

• Recruiting additional cleaners

• Extra cleaning hours

• Training for staff on their cleaning responsibilities

• Introduction of a 24/7 helpdesk to report cleanliness concerns

They also point out that an increase in the number of patients with norovirus symptoms last winter was a result of 'the increase in cases in the community', rather than a consequence of poor cleanliness.

Carillion have also responded to the allegations, pointing out steps they've taken to improve cleanliness.