WHEN visiting Ward 23 at York District Hospital I used one of the lifts, its walls have been lined with the same carpeting since the hospital was first opened.

While long concerned by the surface coverings' potential for harbouring dirt and germs, I was shocked and disgusted by the filthy, disintegrating state it had been allowed to fall into.

The adjoining lift, from which a patient was being wheeled on a trolley, was in an even more dilapidated and dirty condition, including an unswept floor.

It is a regrettable fact that our hospital, along with too many others, has an unsatisfactory record of patients falling victim to 'in house' infections during their stay.

This is one blindingly-obvious source of such infection that is long overdue for attention.

My greatest concern is that senior management has allowed this state of affairs to exist for so long.

Derek R Wortley,

Turners Croft,

Heslington,

York.

Updated: 10:05 Friday, June 08, 2001