Story from the UK Telegraph. (H/T Secondhand Smoke via ECM)

Excerpt:

Ants in operating theatres and maternity, cockroaches in x-ray and mice in A&E are some of the 30,000 pest infestations in NHS hospitals over the last four years, figures have revealed.

Data released under the Freedom of Information Act shows NHS hospitals in England have dealt with almost 30,000 pest infestations since 2006. Exterminators were called to deal with black ants, wasps, rodents, cluster flies, biting insects, silver fish, woodlice, bird mites, maggots, pigeons, red spiders, may bugs, mosquitoes, ladybirds, bees, mice and fleas.

The pests were found in all areas of hospitals including patient wards, operating theatres, maternity units, A&E and children’s wards as well as in kitchens, maintenance, offices and staff accommodation. On average 70 exterminators are called out each day to NHS hospitals in England and often deal with more than one infestation at a time.

When the consumers are not the ones paying the bills, and there are no competing vendors, what possible incentive is there for the service providers to provide quality service? There is no inventive, and so there is no quality service.