CONCERNED patient Tony Elliston hopes health chiefs have cleaned up their act after complaining that conditions at Wycombe Hospital were dirty and unhygienic.

Mr Elliston, of New Road, Little Kingshill, Great Missenden, paid £40 a night for an amenity room at Wycombe Hospital when he was admitted for an operation to remove his gall bladder on October 10.

But when the retired sales director arrived he was shocked by the state of his room. Mr Elliston said: "Upon entering the room I noticed there was no heating and the standard of hygiene left a lot to be desired."

Mr Elliston also noticed the floor of the shared shower room in his ward was filthy and he even spotted a cotton wool swab on the floor and debris surrounding the drain.

He added: "The hygiene really was very upsetting. The shower was like a breeding ground. The windows were dirty in the room I was in and the rest room. One of the lifts was disgusting with empty drinks cans and sweet packets. You would hope this would be cleared up immediately."

In a letter to Mr Elliston, Roy Darby, chief executive of South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust, admitted that cleaning standards at the hospital have been "variable".

A Government report into standards of hygiene at the hospital is due for release later this month following a £100,000 cleaning blitz of wards last year.

But news of the report comes less than a week after Government inspectors announced one in three hospitals had failed basic hygiene checks nationwide.

Martin Leaver, trust spokesman, said they needed more time to digest the inspectors' report before commenting but said: "Cleanliness of the wards is a top priority and since Mr Elliston was with us we have actually spent £100,000 on improvements."

He added: "We encourage feedback from our patients but there's not a lot more we can say."