Dundee hospital infested with bats

Published on Thursday 8 October 2009 13:29

BATS have been found flying around wards at a hospital, it emerged today.

The mammals were spotted on the general medical ward 6 at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee on September 4 and on surgical ward 9 five days later.

Pest controllers were called to NHS Tayside Hospitals 462 times between October 2008 and last month, according to details obtained under Freedom of Information and published in The Courier.

As well as bats they dealt with rats, mice, seagulls, dead birds and a dead rabbit.

Mice were found in the kitchen and main dining room at Stracathro Hospital, and in the main kitchen of Ashludie Hospital in Monifieth.

Rats were found in ward 4 at Little Cairnie Hospital in Arbroath.

Most incidents involved insects including cockroaches, ants, flies, silverfish, beetles, wasps and hornets.

Cockroaches were found in the dining room at Sunnyside in Montrose, and maggots in the corridor near the kitchen at the hospital.

Silverfish were discovered in the food preparation area at Perth Royal Infirmary.

The health board spent around 1.1 million on pest control within hospital premises, including the grounds between October 2008 and the end of July this year, the newspaper reported.

Margaret Watt, chair of the Scotland Patients Association, said: "This is totally unacceptable.

"We've got enough to contend with, with MRSA and Clostridium difficile, without having foreign bodies running around.

"Patients are frightened enough to go into hospital without knowing there are rats and mice and cockroaches.

"This health board has got to waken up and realise this cannot continue.

"They are not just letting themselves down, they are letting the patients down and the Scottish government."