Thousands of pests including rats, cockroaches and bedbugs have been found at NHS hospitals in England as the health service buckles under a record high repair bill.
Hospital bosses are having to spend millions of pounds on pest control after discovering lice, flies and rodents in children’s wards, breast clinics, maternity units, A&E departments and kitchens, in the most graphic illustration yet of the dismal and dangerous state of the NHS estate.
NHS bosses have repeatedly warned ministers of the urgent need to plough cash into fixing rundown buildings in order to protect the safety and dignity of patients and staff. The maintenance backlog now stands at £11.6bn in England.
Figures obtained under freedom of information laws and reviewed by the Guardian suggest the NHS is struggling to cope with an army of pests plaguing decrepit hospitals.
There were more than 18,000 pest incidents in the last three years, the NHS data reveals. There were 6,666 last year, equivalent to 18 a day. The figures also show NHS bosses are having to spend millions of pounds calling out pest control and dealing with infestations, with £3.7m spent in the last three years.
The data requests to 142 NHS hospital trusts in England, made by the Liberal Democrats, yielded only 59 responses – suggesting the cost and true number of incidents were much higher.
Of trusts that responded, Imperial College healthcare NHS trust in London spent the most on pest control in the last three years, £383,597, with 2,157 incidents.
East and North Hertfordshire NHS trust spent £119,199 to deal with dozens of incidents, including mice in a kitchen, maggots in a mortuary, rat droppings in a corpse bag and silverfish insects in a doctors’ mess.
The Princess Alexandra hospital NHS trust in Essex spent £273,330 on pest control. It reported 77 incidents including ants in a maternity ward, a fly infestation in a “clean utility room”, rat droppings in corridors and rodents in the ceiling.
Rachel Power, the chief executive of the Patients Association, said the revelations were “deeply concerning” and “unacceptable”, adding: “No one should have to endure being exposed to insects, rodents or other pests when they are already dealing with illness or injury.”
Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, the membership organisation for hospitals, said far too many NHS buildings were “in a very bad way”.
The £11.6bn backlog bill was also rising at an “alarming rate”, she added, saying: “It’s worrying that on top of this trusts have to spend millions on pest control.”
Hospitals urgently needed government investment to tackle the “significant risks” to the safety of patients and staff, Cordery said.
Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said the revelations were shocking and another sign that hospitals were no longer up to scratch for sick patients and hard-working 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,” he said. “This is a national scandal.”
Davey urged ministers to immediately provide emergency funds to resolve the crisis. “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. Conservative ministers cannot hide any longer from the state of the NHS.”
Imperial College healthcare said it was committed to ensuring clean and safe spaces for its patients, visitors and staff and had “strong pest control measures in place” alongside “rigorous infection prevention and control processes”.
East and North Hertfordshire trust said it wanted to provide a clean and safe environment and had allocated funding for improving pest control, enabling it to “quickly resolve issues” and prevent as many as possible.
Michael Meredith, the director of strategy and estates at the Princess Alexandra trust, said he took pest control seriously and was proud of “the quick and decisive action” the trust had taken to eradicate any problems.
The Department of Health and Social Care said NHS hospital trusts were legally responsible for maintaining their estates, including pest control, and added that it had invested significant sums to upgrade and modernise NHS buildings, including £4.2bn this year.
“We have also invested a further £1.7bn for over 70 hospital upgrades across England,” a spokesperson added.
