PRIVATE sector cleaning at York Hospital has been ditched after complaints from staff, patients and visitors.

Health chiefs have pledged to reintroduce in-house cleaning early next year and invest another £800,000 a year into the service.

Director of nursing Mike Proctor said patients, staff and visitors were unhappy at the level of cleanliness which lost the hospital trust its three-star rating and dashed its hopes of foundation status.

It marks the end of almost 16 years tendering York Hospital's cleanliness in the private sector.

Mr Proctor said: "Hospital cleanliness is the biggest single public confidence issue in the NHS. The public link MRSA and cleanliness together, even though that is not always the case.

"We want everyone to take ownership of cleanliness; staff, patients and visitors."

He said: "It won't make all the problems go away overnight, but by keeping it in our control we've got a fair chance of making the hospital environment so much better than it is currently."

The trust has vowed to:

Spend another £800,000 a year on cleanliness

Transfer jobs held by Initial Hospital Services workers into the NHS

Improve employment terms and conditions for cleaners

Give cleaners more time on the wards.

In 2002, the hospital's wards were described as "absolutely filthy" by one of its own nurses. The concerned nurse said she frequently got out the mop and bucket herself and claimed blood and human waste was not cleaned up properly on floors and curtains.

Only a year earlier, a Department of Health inspection hailed the hospital's cleaning standards as "excellent".

But last year health chiefs admitted their standards of cleanliness were "not acceptable" and a new health watchdog began its work by investigating the hospital.

It has since been judged as having "acceptable" cleaning standards, but Mr Proctor said that was not enough.

He said: "In my experience in the last five or six years I would say there has been a general dissatisfaction with the standards of cleaning in hospitals, with staff, patients and visitors.

"We have had to work really hard to get to an acceptable standard and we're working really hard with our contractors and they're working really hard as well.

"There is new money going into cleaning. We're trying to get hold of the issue again."

The fresh start will coincide with the natural end of the contract with Initial Hospital Services.

Chief executive Jim Easton said: "From listening to patients, staff and members of the public, I know that we need to further improve the cleaning standards here at the trust.

"Initial Hospital Services has said that, while disappointed, it understands our reasons for ending the contract for cleaning services."

Enda Mulhearn, York branch secretary of public service union Unison, said: "I am thrilled. With in-house cleaning staff will feel more valued and the results will be cleaner wards."

A spokesman from Initial Hospital Services said today: "Over the past two years we have consistently asked for more funding to improve hospital hygiene standards, and are somewhat surprised that the trust is now proposing to allocate £800,000 extra per annum, an increase of over 60 per cent.

"We would have liked the opportunity to re-tender for the contract, as this massive injection of funds would not only have enabled us to meet the enhanced specification, but also invest more in staff wages and training."

Two babies have been found to be carrying the MRSA superbug in the special care unit at a North Yorkshire Hospital.

The cases were picked up during routine tests at the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton.

One of the babies is still being treated, but the other has been allowed home.

Doctors have reassured patients that although the babies had the bug they did not have the active infection.

A spokeswoman for South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust said the bug had been found on the babies during tests while they were in the neo-natal unit.

Updated: 10:17 Wednesday, June 01, 2005