Hospital trust counting cost of toilet blockages

WET WIPES TO BLAME SAY BOSSES AS CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED

- By SAM VOLPE

BLOCKED sewers cost Newcastle's hospitals thousands, warn bosses at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI). Health bosses said the city centre hospital has seen a shocking 5,500 blockages in just three years.

The Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust - which runs both the Freeman and RVI - is now running a campaign with Northumbrian Water to urge people in hospital not to flush wet wipes.

This is a huge problem nationwide, but at the RVI's New Victoria Wing alone there have been 3,000 blockages in just three years, with 2,500 elsewhere on the hospital site. Hospital bosses said each sewer blockage cost just short of a thousand pounds to sort.