Italian police ordered in to inspect ‘dirty’ hospitals

A scandal over dirty hospitals is gathering momentum in Italy with specialist police carrying out inspections around the country. Health and sanitation officials attached to the carabinieri force were called in after an undercover reporter exposed unhygienic conditions at the country’s biggest hospital, Rome’s Policlinico Umberto I.

It was one of a number of major hospitals across Italy to be inspected on the orders of the health minister. The revelations in the weekly L’Espresso shocked the nation. The journalist, posing as a cleaner, secretly filmed rubbish and dirt lying in various locations around the hospital. The video also shows poor security with unguarded radioactive material and abandoned medical records. It led to calls from some politicians for the hospital, which was built at the end of the 19th century to be demolished or closed down.

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