I must comment on the article relating to the clean bill of health at Southend Hospital (Aug 16), which said an inspection was carried out during July.

I spent time in Castle Point ward in July, and I can confirm the floors were not cleaned daily. When they were, the mop went under some of the beds, but the edges and corners were not cleaned.

I was there for ten days and our lockers were only moved once during that time.

Items were dropped on the floor by doctors and nurses and not picked up.

The toilets and showers were only cleaned once a day, in the mornings. By mid-morning, they were quite dirty, with tissues and paper towels often on the floor because patients were not able to place them in the bin provided.

I never saw any cleaning of the toilet doors, and you can imagine how many hands had touched these.

I saw a nurse taking surgical gloves from a container on the wall, dropping another pair on the floor, which she then returned to the same container.

I never once saw anybody clean the communal sink.

While most of the nursing and other staff were efficient and practised good hygiene, there were too many who did not and I cannot believe the survey gave a true report of conditions in the hospital.

K Green
Plumberow Avenue
Hockley