YORK MP Rachael Maskell has met with cleaners concerned about severe staffing shortages at the city's hospital.

As reported in The Press, staffing shortages at York Hospital have recently worsened - with managers working to fill a shortfall of more than 900 hours a week.

The hospital said it is working to address the shortage and has taken on new staff with a recruitment drive underway.

York Central MP Rachael Maskell has met with members of Unite to hear their concerns about low pay and low morale.

She said: "The cost of living in York is... making it harder for people to work at the hospital. Low pay and low morale is not good for recruitment and retention. I am therefore going to raise these issues to ensure that our hospitals is properly staffed. Similar challenges are also facing workers in catering.

"It is so important that staff who clean our hospitals and serve meals to patients are given dignity at work through good terms and conditions and pay. I know from my years working on wards in the NHS, that a patient will often share something with the support staff, rather than a doctor or a nurse, and staff on the wards also play a vital role in a patient’s wellbeing, whether a word of encouragement or noting that something isn’t right or a meal has not been eaten.

"When cleaning staff are stretched there is also a risk to public health, as the highest standards of hygiene is essential across the NHS."

Ms Maskell said delays in processing Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, which have meant new staff cannot start work, need to be addressed.

However, the hospital has said it is supporting applicants to make sure they have the right documentation available to meet the DBS’s requirements and, at present, it takes two days for the check to be completed for domestics if the paperwork is correct.

One member of the cleaning team, who asked not to be named, had told The Press how the morale among the domestic staff was at “rock bottom” and claimed that a lack of cleaners meant they had seen bin bags piled up and bodily fluids left on the floor.