More than €68 million was spent on cleaning the bulk of the State's public hospitals last year but many are still in a "mess", it was claimed last night. Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, reports
Figures released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act show some €68.343 million was set aside for cleaning the five main Dublin hospitals and over 30 former health board hospitals last year.
While in a small number of hospitals cleaning allocations were down on 2003, overall the amount set aside for cleaning in 2004 was up €5.8 million.
Last night, Janette Byrne of the lobby group Patients Together, which has been highlighting hygiene problems in hospitals for several months, said: "It's hard to believe if €68 million is being spent that our hospitals are in the mess they are in."
She added: "It's an astronomical amount of money. Maybe they are paying top dollar to the wrong people. Maybe somebody else needs to get the contracts."
She questioned how cleaning contracts were allocated by different hospitals which do not have in-house cleaning staff.
"Do the contracts go to those who are the cheapest or to those who operate to the highest standards?" she asked.
The new figures come within months of Minister for Health Mary Harney expressing concern at a lack of hygiene in hospitals. She told the Dáil in June she had visited meat factories where standards of hygiene were higher than they were in hospitals.
"We would not allow food to be produced in the kind of hygiene environment in which patients are treated," Ms Harney noted.