CLEANING staff at York Hospital lied on their application forms about having a criminal record, it has been revealed.

Checks with the Criminal Records Bureau showed that five employees did not declare convictions when applying for their jobs. Three of those were fired following the discovery, one of whom appealed unsuccessfully.

The problem came to light when the domestic service was transferred to employees of the York Hospitals Trust following the termination of the contract with Initial Hospital Services in April.

Sickness absence levels among cleaning staff have also risen since the service was taken back in-house.

Hospital bosses have otherwise hailed the transfer a success.

Danny Morgan, director of facilities, said: "Overall it is a good story. It was a fairly bumpy ride, but we were expecting that."

He told York Hospitals NHS Trust board meeting yesterday it had been Initial's declared policy that all their employees who had contact with vulnerable patients would be reviewed through the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) at the basic level.

However, this was not a contractual obligation.

"We were not given documentation of employee reviews and were subsequently to discover most had not been reviewed by the CRB," said Mr Morgan.

Under employment law, all existing Initial employees working in York Hospital were entitled to transfer to the trust.

The recruits were asked to apply for CRB checks at the enhanced level when they did transfer and, because of expected delays, were asked to disclose any previous convictions, cautions or arrests.

While the CRBs were underway, uncleared employees were confined to duties away from vulnerable patients.

In the first three months of the transfer, absence through sickness was "quite rare" but has since shown an increase with peaks of more than 20 per cent for certain unpopular shifts, said Mr Morgan.