A charity has said the way hospitals are regulated should be urgently reformed after a report found a catalogue of failings at two hospitals in Essex.

The Patients Association, an independent regulator, said the failings were not isolated cases and patients had suffered a lack of monitoring, lack of help with feeding and a lack of dignity.

The director of the charity, Katherine Murphy, has called for the system of regulation and supervision to be urgently reformed.

Baroness Young, chair of the Care Quality Commission, said reforms would soon be in place. The Basildon and Thurrock NHS trust said concerns were not indicative of wider problems, but a taskforce has been sent in to force through improvements.

Most district general hospitals spend far too little on cleaning services, paying little more than the minimum wage to poorly-trained and poorly-motivated contract staff, and who simply do not understand the vital importance of thorough and deep cleaning.

I say give the senior nurse in each clinical area direct authority over an adequate number of well-paid and properly-trained cleaning staff, then you’ll see a real improvement in standards.

You also have to educate staff in personal and buildings hygiene. Give cleaning staff more status and engage them in the mainstream of hospital policy.

Too often cleaning staff are seen as inferior beings, the very people who are in the front line of health.

Give them uniforms and in-depth training. Give them a recognisable title of importance.

I also say bring back discipline – old-fashioned though that may seem to some staff – all trained to recognise its place as the essential self-critical component of health-care.

You will then see the real difference in hospital cleansing. Councillor Salim Mulla