Infest In The NHS

The findings were astonishing. 70% of hospitals have had to call out for pest control at least 50 times in the last 2 years. With the shape the NHS is in at the moment, this was further negative press attention it could well do without.

When the findings were made public last week, I didn’t get around to writing this. Frankly, I was understandably flabbergasted at what I had heard on the radio programme to which I was listening inattentively. The mention of insects and murine animals being ever-present in hospitals set off alarm bells in my head. I simply couldn’t decide which was more disturbing; the fact that there where large scale infestations of these creatures in hospitals, or the fact that it had become commonplace to call out for the exterminators and deal with the problem swiftly and covertly to hide the influx of maggots and mice from patients in the basement.

Now I know statistics can be manipulated to say what the creator wants them to say, but these percentages speak volumes by themselves:

80% of hospitals reported infestations by ants.
77% reported infestations by mice.
66% reported infestations by rats.
59% reported infestations by maggots.

With figures like that, how can people suffering from minor illnesses expect to come out of hospitals healthier than when they went in?

Conservatives got hold of this information and have clearly managed to use it to their advantage; publicising it under the Freedom of Information Act.

“I’ve got some juicy gossip about UK hospitals!” David Cameron excitedly says to a tabloid journalist. The next day, provocative headlines concerning the matter widen more eyes than the Sun’s daily page 3 model.

You have to admit that regardless of how far healthcare advances in terms of quick, efficient treatments for the ill, it all comes to nought when the patient dies of a bug they’ve caught off…well, a bug.