CONTRACTORS charged with pest controller at East Lancashire’s hospitals are clearly being kept pretty busy with an average of one call-out every two or three days over the past three years.

It is clear that the system for reporting sightings of everything from rats to cockroaches, fleas and even squirrels and then acting against them at Burnley General and Royal Blackburn Hospital is working.

What’s surprising however is that there are such frequent problems with vermin at institutions which we alll know need to be squeaky clean to stop any spread of infection.

Hospitals like Burnley General which are more than a century old will obviously have the sort of issues that age is bound to bring especially when we are told that there are, for example, more rats around our towns now than for many years.

Some people will raise an eyebrow at the fact that the Royal Blackburn Hospital has averaged nearly one sighting a week of unwanted animals or insects since it opened three years ago.

The figures may well reflect the vigilance with which such important matters are pursued by the hospital authorities.

But it is disturbing to hear that Burnley Council leader Coun Gordon Birtwistle has had “many” reports of the problem – from patients.