Plans to ban Scottish NHS bosses from putting more hospital cleaning services out to contract have been attacked by the Conservative Party.
Spokesman Jackson Carlaw said the government had implied that external contractors were to blame for recent outbreaks of infection in hospitals.
The Tory MSP said: “It was disingenuous, misleading and wrong of the SNP health secretary Nicola Sturgeon to infer that external cleaning contracts were to blame for recent outbreaks of hospital acquired infections.
“She should concentrate on practical measures which would make a difference, and not waste time on misguided political ideology.”
Ms Sturgeon told delegates at the SNP annual conference in Perth that she is banning hospitals from contracting out more cleaning and catering services.
She said she was setting “very tough” new targets to cut rates of C difficile, and added that “the very highest standards of hospital cleanliness” would be required to meet this.
She said: “A letter will issue from my department to all health boards advising them that from now on there will be no further privatisation of hospital cleaning and catering services anywhere in Scotland.”
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