Cleaning Standards 'satisfactory' at Western General
A report on cleanliness at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital has said that the overall standard is "satisfactory".
The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate has published its findings of a visit to the hospital last month.
It praised the high standard of maintenance on a site that has many ageing buildings.
But it found that parts of one ward had no access to sinks for hand-washing, and the beds were too close together.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "It's particularly encouraging that inspectors found that patients were positive about the cleanliness of ward areas at the Western General.
"However, room for improvement was also found and I expect these concerns to be rectified."
Although the overall standard was satisfactory the report had some criticisms.
There were cubicle areas where curtains were being used to isolate patients from the main ward, and sterile medical supplies were present in a sealed-off construction area.
It also found patients in isolation had no dedicated toilet facilities and that cleaning schedules for patient equipment were not consistently completed.
NHS Lothian spokesman James McCaffery said: "The Health Environment Inspectorate highlighted a number of areas of strength in the Western General Hospital including standards of cleanliness and maintenance.
"The inspection team also singled out for praise other areas of good practice, including our patient involvement in hand hygiene and staff infection control education.
"Inevitably in a busy hospital, there were some areas the inspectors said could be improved and these have been addressed as part of the action plan drawn up following the visit."