Mitie hospital trust contract: 'Standards not met'

The company Mitie has repeatedly failed to meet cleaning and catering standards at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust

A firm hired to provide "hotel services" at a hospital has continued to fail to meet the required standards, figures obtained by the BBC have shown.

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust employed Mitie to provide cleaning and catering in October 2014.

The company failed to meet required standards 85 times in January, 51 times in February, 271 times in March and 196 in April. One incident in March and one in April were classed as "critical".

The trust said it was monitoring Mitie.

According to the contract between the firm and the trust, seen by the BBC, "service failures" accrue a certain number of points which can lead to financial penalties.

In March the trust deducted 49% of the firm's profit margins, and 51% in April because of failure to meet required standards. However, the exact amount of money has not been released.

Examples of service failures are if a ward is not cleaned to a satisfactory standard or if a cleaner fails to respond to a request to clean a spillage.

The firm was hired last year to replace services at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, St Michael's in Hayle and West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance.

The trust said: "We are continuing our robust monitoring of the Mitie contract.

"Mitie has responded to concerns raised and we are working together to ensure the delivery of a safe, high quality service for our patients."