East Kent Hospitals University NHS Trust (EKHUT) is 10th in the country when it comes to calling in the pest controllers.

Between January 2006 and April 2008, the trust, which manages hospitals in Canterbury, Ashford, Thanet, Folkestone and Dover, called in experts to get rid of vermin and insects 416 times.

The stats were revealed in a Freedom of Information request by the Conservative party.

An EKHUT spokesperson said the figures were steadily going down and a lot of the visits were return visits.

~ Listen: EKHUT’s director of estates and facilities Howard Jones explains the figures>>>

Mr Jones said: “We are not concerned about the figures because in fact it paints a picture of us being very attentive.

“The figures reported are over two years. We cover five hospital sites when you break it down it averages out one call out every one and half week. It is not as black a picture that the headline figures would indicate.

“I would like to reassure the public that we don’t have a problem at east Kent hospitals. We treat hygiene and cleanliness of sites very carefully. All those reported infestations are not in clinical areas but in external stores and ductwork.”