Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals and King’s College Hospital made the highest number of calls for pest control out of 52 NHS trusts last year, figures reveal.
The two Southwark hospitals came top of a table of 52 trusts, who in total made some 5,000 calls to deal with rodents, maggots and cockroaches – at the cost of £628,721.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ made 835 calls and King’s College Hospital made 529 calls in 2015.
A spokesman from Guy’s and St Thomas ‘ NHS Foundation Trust said that they “take all pest control matters very seriously and deal with them swiftly”, adding that their location close to the Thames means a “robust response is absolutely essential”.
The reason given by King’s College Hospital for their high number of call outs was that some were for “prevention and not just infestation”.
A spokesperson said: “The estate at King’s College Hospital is particularly prone to this type of problem because of its age and due to its proximity to the railway.
“We have robust systems in place to report, rectify and prevent any pest control issues that arise on a day to day basis.
“All services related to pest control/infestation are sub-contracted via an out-sourced provider on a fixed annual agreement which includes pest control and prevention services.
“They have an on-going programme to take preventative action to avoid future occurrences where possible.”
