THREE staff members have been suspended at the Kent and Sussex Hospital at Tunbridge Wells following an undercover operation which revealed poor hygiene standards.

A BBC South East Today reporter worked for the in-house cleaning team at the hospital in May and revealed clinical waste piling up in public corridors, dirty floors and poor attention to hygiene by the staff on duty on its programme screened last night.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust launched an immediate inquiry and has suspended three members of staff pending a full investigation.

All remaining staff were told that any breaches in its cleaning policies could result in disciplinary action.

The Trust strongly denied claims that patients are being put at risk. Chief executive Rose Gibb said: "I was aware there were deficiencies in the standards of cleaning at Kent and Sussex Hospital, was working closely with the Patients Forum on the problems and had planned an extensive programme of improvements to resolve these issues.

"I have personally brought forward this work in the light of this report, which showed the differences in standards of cleaning in some areas were worse than I thought."