A campaign group is bringing a 12-foot inflatable rat to a protest ahead of a meeting which will decide how Nottinghamshire’s hospitals are kept clean.
Keep Our NHS Public says on Thursday board members of the Trust that runs the QMC and City hospitals will meet to discuss the future of the deal with their cleaning contractors, Carillion.
KONP says it will be protesting against the continuation of the deal using a giant 12-foot inflatable rat to ‘make the point as clearly as possible.’
The discussion will take place as part of the trust’s monthly board meeting.
Some managers who raised concerns about the cleanliness levels at Nottingham’s two main hospitals will be in attendance at the meeting.
Patients are routinely putting up with dirty wards
KONP spokesman Mike Scott said: “The trust board have a rat in their kitchen and need to decide what they’re going to do.
“Carillion have had innumerable last chances and have shown all too clearly that they’re focused on profits rather than patients.
“They’ve had problems with other hospital contracts and those have been repeated here – hospital staff and managers are at their wits end and patients are routinely putting up with dirty wards.
“It’s time to give them their marching orders.
“The only way to guarantee services in the long-term is to take the contracts back in-house; NHS staff, Carillion staff, Trade Unions, managers and patients all want this to happen.”
The group will be demonstrating on Thursday at the Derby Road entrance to the QMC campus.
Following a board meeting back in October, NUH chief executive Peter Homa said: “After implementing several rigorous interventions, serious concerns remain about the cleanliness of our hospitals.
“Enhanced audits completed during October will provide the Trust with an independent assessment of cleanliness standards across our hospitals.
“We will again raise our serious concerns at the highest levels in Carillion.
“We will evaluate this independent report over the coming week, whilst bringing together all available evidence so that the NUH Trust Board can make a decision on the future provision of cleaning services and the wider Carillion contract by the end of November.”
Carillion said at the time: “We have recruited additional cleaning staff, carried out training programmes and adapted working practices to meet the concerns of the trust.
“We continue to work with the trust to ensure clarity about where responsibility for certain cleaning duties lies between the trust’s team and our own cleaning staff who work hard to do a good job for patients and nursing staff.
“Based on the report to the trust’s board it is clear that further work is jointly needed to ensure the best experience for patients and their families.”
