Toilets at the at the Royal Cornwall Hospital were in an “absolutely disgusting” state, according to a patient.

Managers said cleaners “take a pride in their work and are disappointed the area was not up to our usual high standard at the time of this visit”. But the patient found them so disgusting she made an official complaint, and took a photograph to prove her point.

The bag lining this rather anonymous pedal bin appears to be a yellow tiger bag, which seems rather over the top for one of the hospital’s public toilets. Surely this is black bag waste?

Clearly, something has gone badly wrong here. This begs the question whether this is an isolated incident or more generally reflective of poor hygiene standards and deficiencies in waste management. Clearly, segregation and classification of wastes is not right, and then there is the timely management of the bins.

The patient said: “I was shocked. The bin holding the paper towels had a pile about 2ft above the bin with toilet paper all over the floor in both cubicles.

“Both of the toilet pans were soiled. Platitudes from the hospital’s managers do not help, and hopefully some action has been taken to ensure that these failures in hygiene and waste management do not recur.

With the widespread, and now almost universal, use of mobile phones having high resolution digital cameras it is increasingly possible for defects and deficiencies, and for bad practice, to be recorded and reported. This keeps everyone on their toes and is a particularly useful advance.

Might we soon expect blanket bans on mobile phone camera use in hospitals and other sensitive areas, dressed up as the protection of patient confidentiality etc, simply to avoid the embarrassment of public disapprobation?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-18826335