INSECTS have been seen on Gwent hospital wards according to information released by the Conservatives.

Responses to information requests from the Tories included a report of wasps and flies on a maternity ward at the Royal Gwent Hospital.

In another incident, "biting insects” were found in a "surgical appliance” at Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust.

Conservative AM Alun Cairns said publishing information like this is one way of driving up hygiene standards: "It is difficult for health service estates to maintain a completely pest-free environment, but the level and variety of these infestations is concerning.

"We need greater transparency in NHS infection control."

An Assembly Government spokesman said there was no evidence to support a link between pests and Clostridium Difficile, or any other hospital infection.

He said: "Hospitals are large, complex buildings and whilst wholly undesirable and intolerable there is a degree of inevitability that pests will try to inhabit such buildings.

"Arguably the high number of call outs reflects a proactive approach by organisations to a perennial threat.”