ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Basic commodities like soap are still not being provided in toilets in all public hospitals in Ireland, according to a patients' group there. Janette Byrne of lobby organisation Patients Together said this was still the unfortunate reality at a time when millions are being spent on hospital cleaning services.

Figures released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act show at least €68 million was spent on cleaning the majority of the State's public hospitals last year. The figures come as the Health Service Executive (HSE) has engaged outside consultants to conduct an audit of cleanliness in hospitals across the country. The firm is carrying out unannounced inspections and will report to the HS.

The figures for amounts allocated to hospital cleaning in 2013 and 2014 indicate that despite suspicions cleaning budgets had been cut by hospitals to fund other services, this does not appear to be the case. They show cleaning budgets in many main hospitals increased dramatically last year.

Byrne said there was absolutely no excuse for hospitals not being clean when taxpayers were paying "top dollar" for cleaning services. However, she said cleaning staff claimed it was impossible to keep some departments such as A&E units clean because of overcrowding.Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said the fact the cumulative cleaning budgets for more than 30 hospitals were up more than €5.8 million last year did not mean more was spent on cleaning. He claimed most of the increase would have gone on wage rises.

"It is only when we deal properly with the problem of cleanliness and hygiene and infection control in our hospitals that we will see huge increases in hospital cleaning budgets," he said.

However, he stressed that €68 million was a lot of money to have been spent on cleaning if hospitals were still not clean. "Most people have experience of going into hotels and pubs and seeing details of when areas were last cleaned and by whom. We should have that also in our hospitals," he said.Labour health spokeswoman Liz McManus said a lot of money was being spent by hospitals on cleaning, yet the situation was not at all satisfactory.

"It does raise a very specific issue about the privatisation of services - there are questions around whether it's the most appropriate way to clean our hospitals," she said."Hygiene issues will arise when hospitals are so busy, no matter what their cleaning budgets are."