NHS board refuses to reveal extent of north-east problem

Grampian hospitals fight pest invasion

By Ryan Crighton

Published:

Hospitals across the north and north-east are being invaded by plagues of rats, cockroaches and other insects every year, the Press and Journal can reveal.

NHS Grampian, NHS Tayside and NHS Highland are spending thousands of pounds on pest controllers to battle infestations of bedbugs, fleas, slugs, ants and other biting insects.

Grim tasks undertaken to combat the problem include removing wasps’ nests from a mortuary, tackling a millipede infestation in an operating theatre suite and investigating reports of insects in stores of rice.

A leading Scottish patient group described the findings last night as “sickening”, while a senior MSP said it was “little surprise” that the country was plagued by hospital-acquired infections.

NHS Grampian refused to reveal exact details of its pest outbreaks, despite repeated requests by the Press and Journal.

However, the board did reveal it had a wide pest-control contract covering all its sites in the north-east.

The contract is in place to deal with cockroaches, silverfish, insects inside stored products, rodents, ants, crickets and pest birds.

Pest controllers visit its kitchens, operating theatres, plant rooms and stores eight times a year, while ward kitchens and stores are visited four times a year.

Wasps’ nests continue to be the biggest problem for NHS Highland but mice, rats, bats and cockroaches have also posed problems.

Pest controllers have had to exterminate biting insects at a nurses’ station at the Invergordon community hospital, treat a millipede infestation in the operating theatre suite at the Mackinnon Memorial Hospital at Broadford, Skye, and get rid of spider mites in the IT office at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.

Other incidents at Raigmore include silverfish in the food store and butchery area, beetles in the kitchen’s hot-trolley area, insects in pudding rice that was kept in the kitchen’s dry-goods store and worms in the breast centre.

In Tayside, NHS bosses have had to contend with more than 300 pest outbreaks since the turn of the year.

Across the health board’s 93 locations, there have been 321 pest outbreaks so far this year that required the intervention of pest controllers.

The board has suffered major problems with ants, with 174 outbreaks since January.

Experts have been drafted in to deal with rats and mice on a further 45 occasions and had to return 31 times to deal with insects and flies.

Scotland Patients Association chairwoman Margaret Watt said last night the incidents made her “feel sick”.

“The cleanliness in our hospitals is definitely not what it should be and some of these infestations sound appalling,” she said. “My dog’s kennel is cleaner than this.

“We are trying to tackle hospital-acquired infections, but surely this is just adding to the problem. I’m sure the people running these hospitals do not live in conditions like this, so why should they expect patients to deal with it.”

She added: “It is very disappointing that NHS Grampian have not provided the same information as the other boards – obviously they have something to hide.”

Yesterday, former NHS consultant Professor Ashley Mowat said hospital cleanliness had plummeted since the number of beds was cut.

The professor, who worked as a physician to the Royal Family during their visits to the north-east before his recent retirement, said the loss of long-serving staff had also hit ward hygiene.

Loss

“The cleanliness of hospitals was always under the direction of the matron and sisters,” he said. “When this part of the service was privatised, our hospital staff had a pay loss, so many left.

“Casual workers then came in. These were part-time workers that didn’t belong to the team. The idea of a team working together for the hospital has gone and that has had a huge impact on cleanliness.”

Scottish Conservative spokeswoman on health Mary Scanlon said the figures must be acted on.

“It can hardly come as a surprise that we have hospital-acquired infections, and it is very disappointing to hear of these infestations more than a decade after measures were put in place to tackle this,” she said.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said it was unaware of any link between infestations and infection outbreaks.

“All NHS boards in Scotland have in place pest-control procedures and contracts,” she said.

“The Scottish Government expects all NHS boards to continually ensure that pest-control procedures and contracts offer value for money and effective intervention for this common problem.”