LONDON, May 14 (UPI) -- British hospitals are dirtier than food factories, says Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt.
Hewitt promised to increase the role of the private sector in providing care for National Health Service patients and said she would introduce a Hygiene Bill that would impose rules based on food hygiene legislation on the NHS and care homes, the London Telegraph reported Saturday.
"In my last job as secretary of state for trade and industry, I visited a number of top-class British food production factories," she said. "I find it extraordinary that we have tougher laws and higher standards for our food factories than we do for our hospitals. It's not good enough, and together we have to improve it."
The operations taken over by the private sector, which would cover elective surgery such as hip and knee replacements, would help the government reach its gal of having no patient waiting more than 18 weeks for an operation -- by 2008.
