Directors of the Great Western Hospital have publicly spoken of their frustration with and dipping confidence in Carillion, the firm in charge of its cleaning and catering services.

In a report presented to health chiefs last week, the hospital trust listed a catalogue of Carillion’s ‘failings’, expressing concerns about the company’s ability to fulfil its obligations without placing patients at risk.

GWH Trust directors agreed to take a strong stance and demanded immediate and visible improvements from Carillion.

Cleanliness standards were a huge problem for GWH after the health watchdog raised concerns at an inspection in October 2013, as was food hygiene after Carillion was awarded just one star in June 2014 following a further inspection.

Carillion is not directly employed by the hospital but by the building’s owner, Semperian, under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract.

In the report, Kevin McNamara, GWH director of strategy, said: “It is increasingly frustrating and disappointing that serious issues regularly arise and the Trust now lacks the confidence in Carillion neither in being able to resolve these issues once and for all, nor in their ability to foresee and prevent other, as yet unknown issues, from impacting on patient services.

“For us, the absolute priority is patient care and we are unapologetic about expecting the highest standards of service from Carillion and swift action from Semperian – our patients expect it and the board demands it.

“There is clearly a risk to quality and safety which needs to be addressed and Carillion have not demonstrated the ability to adequately resolve any one of these major issues to the required standard, let alone all of them together.

“The continual issues with poor quality are adversely impacting on our reputation amongst patients and key stakeholders.

“Concerns about food hygiene and cleanliness have posed a potential risk to patients, visitors and staff which is completely unacceptable.

“It is the view of the Executive Team that issues have not been taken as seriously as they should be by Carillion as resolving these outstanding issues is slow and any improvements made are not being consistently maintained.”

An unresolved dispute with staff who will now be bringing their case for bullying and racism against Carillion to the Employment Tribunal was deemed as ‘another distraction from the day-to-day service’.

“This dispute has resulted in a large number (circa 50) of employment tribunal claims lodged against Carillion by their own staff,” added Mr McNamara in the report.

“This process is still ongoing with currently no timescale for resolution and it is a clear distraction from the day-to-day service we require and pay for.”

But Carillion insisted it had made improvements and was confident the quality of its service posed no risk to patients.

A spokesman said: “Carillion accepts that earlier in 2014 the standards for cleaning and the food service dropped below the quality that is accepted.

“In both cases immediate action was taken and improvements have been made.

“We are confident that there is not a risk to the safety of patients.

“We continue to work with the Trust to make further improvements to services for patients, visitors to the hospital and the Trust staff.

“The Trust plays an important part in monitoring our services including the Trust board.

“We will continue to work with the Trust to deliver services that support the delivery of patient care.”