Hospital infestations show Executive health failings

Alliance Health Spokesperson Kieran McCarthy has stated that the findings on pest infestations in hospitals show that the Stormont Executive must stop making cuts in important areas of the health service, like the number of cleaning staff they employ. Pest control experts were called out more than 800 times last year by health trusts in Northern Ireland, and in some cases pests were found in wards and operating theatres.

Kieran McCarthy MLA said: “These findings are quite alarming. Given the high levels of hospital acquired infections in recent times, the importance of high hygiene standards simply cannot be understated.

“Peter Robinson’s Budget when he was Finance Minister cut funding for health. This meant that the number of cleaning staff in hospitals had to been cut, and I believe that this has had an extremely negative impact on local hospitals.

“The public rightly expects the highest level of cleanliness in hospitals and public confidence simply must be maintained. Efficiencies obviously must be made in the public sector, but this must not lead to a decrease in the standard of cleanliness because too many cleaning staff have been laid-off. The standard of frontline care simply must not suffer because of efficiency savings being made in the wrong areas.”

ENDS