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Wakefield hospital bed plagued by ants
A HOSPITAL patient woke from an anaesthetic to find a swarm of ants crawling on his pillow and bedside table.
As Ian Morris recovered in Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield after having his spleen removed, his girlfriend Claire Cooper spotted the ants all over his bedside table.
Some were even amongst his pillows.
"It was disgusting," she said.
"It does not fill you with a lot of confidence," Mr Morris added.
The 25-year-old, from Walton, Wakefield, was on ward G when Ms Cooper, 24, came to visit.
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She said: "I noticed a few on the bedside cabinet. Then I kept seeing more and I saw some on his bed.
"There were about 20 and two of them were on his pillows.
"I said to the nurse that there should not be ants crawling about in hospital."
Mr Morris, a blends operative at a Normanton food manufacturers, said the ward sister told them they had regular problems with ants.
He was told someone would come in to deal with them - but this did not happen during the time he was on the ward.
The only action he saw was a staff member using ant spray.
Mr Morris also claimed the ward, especially the toilets, were in a "disgusting" state. "It was not a nice place to be at all," he said.
Last year it was revealed that Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Pinderfields, had pest controllers visit every week between January 2006 and April 2008.
Tracey McErlain-Burns, chief nurse and director of patient experience at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "I apologise for the distress caused to Mr Morris and his family. Providing a clean and safe environment for our patients is important to us.
"As a large acute hospitals Trust, we take a preventative approach to managing pests. We have an ongoing pest control programme across our hospital sites and also have robust procedures in place so staff can quickly identify and report any problems so we can take the necessary action.
"Nurses on our wards are supported by our matrons in managing any concerns like this and if Mr Morris would like to get in touch with us, we can make arrangements with the surgical matron to discuss this with him further."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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