PEST controllers have been called out to deal with vermin at East Lancashire hospitals more than 400 times in less than three years, it has been revealed.

Records show there have been twice as many reports of vermin at Burnley General Hospital than Royal Blackburn Hospital since 2006.

The list includes hundreds of sightings of rats, cockroaches, fleas, wasps, ants, squirrels, and silverfish at Burnley General Hospital.

It also reveals that on separate occasions at Royal Blackburn Hospital a dead rodent and fleas were reported in the antenatal clinic where pregnant women are cared for.

And last year there were nine call-outs for ants in the children’s unit.

An East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust boss said there had not been a serious infestation for many years due to its “swift responses” to reports of problems.

But Gordon Birtwistle, leader of Burnley Council, described the findings as “frightening” due to the diseases carried by vermin.

And Blackburn’s health watchdog Coun Roy Davies said he thought some of the reports will have “horrified” hospital bosses.

The statistics, revealed to the Lancashire Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act, show there have been 286 reports of vermin at Burnley General Hospital since January 2006, compared to 143 at Royal Blackburn Hospital.

At the Burnley site there have been 90 call-outs for cockroaches, 57 for fleas, 42 for rats, 22 for silverfish, 19 for wasps and wasps’ nests, 19 for flies or bluebottles, 13 for ants, and four each for mice and squirrels.

There have also been sporadic reports of birds in lifts, red mites and spiders, paper mites and beetles.

Coun Birtwistle described the findings as “horrendous” but said he was not surprised as he had “many” reports of the problems from patients.

He added: “The most important thing in a hospital is cleanliness because the diseases that vermin carry only add to the problems and bugs in hospitals.”

At Royal Blackburn Hospital pest controllers have been called out to deal with rats in the staff residence, waste area and antenatal unit, ants in the kitchen and children’s unit, as well as fleas, biting insects and pigeons at the Pendle View psychiatric unit.

And there have been sightings on dead pigeons in the IT services department, a dead duck in the car park, and bed bugs in the staff residence.

Coun Davies, chairman of Blackburn’s health and social care overview and scrutiny committee, said: “When you think about it the site is so vast and is positioned in the middle of a field, so it’s going to get a lot of rodents..

“I’m sure some of the findings will have horrified them, but sometimes things happen and I believe they are trying their best to eradicate the problem.”

The information reveals there has also been nine call-outs to Rossendale Hospital for vermin including dead crows and garden ants.

And there have been a further four call-outs to Pendle Community Hospital for mice and wasps.

Jo Walmsley, domestic manager at the trust, said: “The Trust has strict pest control procedures which mean each individual report of a pest is recorded. Our pest controllers are informed and records of the responses and treatments are retained within the department.

“This is the case even if only a single pest, insect or mammal, has been spotted, and as a result we often find that the same animal is recorded in a number of places in a short space of time.

“Staff are encouraged to report any incident, however small, to ensure that the trust does not suffer a major pest control problem.

“This encouragement, along with our robust contracts and swift responses to all reports of pests, has helped keep all trust buildings free of serious infestation for many years.”