800 hospital pest control calls

Cockroaches were found by pest control at a hospital in Northern Ireland

Pest control experts were called more than 800 times by health trusts in Northern Ireland in a year.

The figures, for the period between April 2007 and March 2008, were obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act.

Mice were found in theatres at Craigavon Hospital and rats in Whiteabbey.

However, the trusts said they look after hundreds of buildings across NI, many of which are very old.

Maggots were found in a ward at Lagan Valley Hospital in Lisburn and cockroaches in the Causeway Hospital at Coleraine.

Patricia McKeown, from the health workers union Unison, said this information should be easier to obtain.

"This is the kind of issue that ought to be part of what the public should know about the health service and where they are going to be treated," she said.

"You can not take more than 50% of the cleaning staff out of our health service, as has happened in Northern Ireland, and expect the same standards to prevail."