Part of the hospital is a former Victorian workhouse, while other buildings date from the 1980s and are hardly an architectural triumph.A spokesman said: “Like a lot of hospitals, some parts are very old and half was built around 1985 That doesn’t help in creating something pleasing to the eye. We recognise there is some way to go.”The hospitalscored badly on the quality of patient food, the fabric of the buildings and the inferior internal decoration. An action plan has been drawn up by West Hertfordshire NHS Trust, which involves substantial investment in external and internal maintenance, redecoration and the refurnishing of waiting areas and improvements to the ventilation system.The spokesman said: “It is not just about cleaning, but trying to improve the fabric of the buildings, getting the food up to speed and improving some of the more shabby parts of the hospital.”The trust also runs hospitals in St Albans and Hemel Hempstead, where inspectors said standards had improved. But managers said that at Watford General it would “take more time to put things right”.The hospital spokesman said: “The hospital isn’t necessarily pleasing on the eye or very easy to maintain. Really that is where the problem lies ­ poor estate.”The Department of Health agreed that one of the biggest problems at Watford General was “ageing buildings and poor infrastructure”. In common with some of the nine other hospitals selected for “special measures”, the hospital suffered from an old estate, which would require extra investment to put right.Inspectors who visited the hospital had identified worn-out furnishings, tired decorations, poor structures and overall layout as the big priorities, rather than bad hygiene. A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “They are doing lots of work to improve the site, but they need to look at refurbishment and layout and make sure cleanliness is up to the standards of the average hospital.”The inspection team said that Watford is working hard to improve the site and the staff are all on board.

But without specific help the hospital is unlikely to meet the deadline set.”. Pupils at three more schools in Leicester are to be screened for tuberculosis after Britain’s worst TB outbreak for 20 years was found to have spread beyond the original school. Pupils at three more schools in Leicester are to be screened for tuberculosis after Britain’s worst TB outbreak for 20 years was found to have spread beyond the original school.Three cases of the disease, which are not believed to be connected to the main outbreak at Crown Hills Community College, caused public health officials to widen testing.Children at Wyvern Primary School, Hamilton Secondary School and Loughborough College will now be screened for the disease after Easter.Yesterday’s announcement came after three children in the city were found to have contracted the disease in what are thought to be completely separate circumstances.The screening programme at Loughborough College, which has a very large number of students, will not include every pupil, but only those in contact with the infected pupil.Last night Leicestershire Health Authority began to send out 60,000 letters to all the parents and students involved, giving information about the disease, how it can be treated and precautions to take.Screening of 550 children aged 10 to 11 who attend Crown Hills Community College was due to start today. At least 33 children have been infected so far, including several who were vaccinated some years ago.. The number of unfilled posts for nurses and consultants in the National Health Service has risen by up to 43 per cent in a year, despite highly publicised recruitment campaigns, government figures revealed last night.

The number of unfilled posts for nurses and consultants in the National Health Service has risen by up to 43 per cent in a year, despite highly publicised recruitment campaigns, government figures revealed last night.
Delivering improvements to the NHS was one of the cornerstones of Labour’s manifesto at the 1997 general election and the staffing shortfall will be highly embarrassing to ministers as they prepare to ask the electorate for a second term.The Department of Health said 9,870 nursing posts had been vacant for at least three months in the 12 months from March 1999, an increase of 2,720 on the previous year’s total of 7,150. They included 490 midwives’ jobs last year (up from 370 in 1999) and 191 health visitor posts, more than double the number the previous year (95).Hospital managers were also trying to recruit another 760 consultants, compared with 530 the year before. And the number of vacancies for other medical professions, such as physiotherapists, chiropodists and dieticians, went up from 860 to 1,510.The figures were supplied by John Denham, the Health minister, in a parliamentary written answer to Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman.The Department of Health said last night the increases reflected the extra jobs being created within the NHS and predicted that continuing recruitment campaigns would reduce the staffing shortfall.But Mr Harvey said the shortages showed the NHS faced ever-growing pressure and could have worrying implications for patient care. “These posts are recognised by the Government as being necessary but nobody is filling them. If they had got on two or three years ago with the recruitment and training they are now committed to, then the NHS would be two or three years closer to higher staff levels,” he said.He said the NHS still faced a “very serious problem” with recruitment, with staff continuing to leave because of poor pay, low morale and the lure of the private medical sector.

“The Government is moving in the right direction but they are doing so slowly. These figures show at the front-line they still face very considerable problems. There must still be a risk staff short-handedness in key posts reduces the quality of care.”The figures were compiled before Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, launched his 10-year strategy to rebuild the NHS, including hiring 7,500 more consultants and another 20,000 qualified nurses.A Department of Health spokesman said that the headline figures for unfilled jobs had increased because of the extra NHS posts being created by the Government. But he admitted the proportion of vacant nursing posts had increased over the year from 2.6 per cent to 3.8 per cent “We need to get more nurses in there. That is a fact we have recognised with all the nurse recruitment activity that we are undertaking It is not a good thing there are that many vacancies… but there is nothing to show it is having an impact on patient care.”. The story so far…