Poor food hygiene for English hospitals
Hygiene standards in some of England’s hospitals are so poor that some have been found with vermin and cockroaches whilst others are storing medical items and food together.
The findings, obtained by the Liberal Democrats under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that 173 of the 377 hospitals displayed poor levels of cleanliness in their kitchens or canteens and 68 did not fulfil the legal requirements for storing food.
These inspection reports also showed that 11 of the hospitals had problems with vermin, 107 of them did not have the correct food safety documents and 25 had poor staff training.
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said the findings were unacceptable.
"These findings paint a shocking picture of hospital food hygiene in this country,' he said."It is simply unacceptable that such terrible practices are taking place in an environment where hygiene and safety should be paramount."
He added: "The worst performers should be named and shamed - while those doing well would stand as an example to drive up standards."
The Food Standards Agency said it would expect any authority with hospital food hygiene problems to take action and called for information that showed significant hygiene problems to be made known to the agency.
A Department of Health spokeswoman echoed Lamb’s comments that failure to meet hygiene standards was unacceptable.