Bendigo Health today lodged an ‘urgent request’ to clean a patient’s room after being notified of a substance, believed to be excrement, on a handrail.

The patient, who wished to remain anonymous, said they discovered the mess after being moved to the room the night prior. 

They said the state of the bathroom was “not excusable”.

Cleaners are understood not to have noticed the issue while tending to the room in the morning.

“The state of the patient bathroom is unacceptable,” a Bendigo Health spokesperson said.

“As soon as staff were notified of the situation an urgent request for cleaning was lodged.”

The mess has subsequently been cleaned, and the patient received an apology.

Spotless is required to provide daily scheduled cleaning services in accordance with the Australian Hospital Cleaning Standard as part of its contract, the Bendigo Health spokesperson said.

“In addition to this scheduled service, Spotless has a dedicated cleaner for each ward from 7am until 8pm,” they said.

“Adhoc cleaning requests are logged via nursing staff and responded to quickly.”

Spotless was contacted for comment.