More than £16,000 has been spent on pest control by the trust operating hospitals in north and west Cumbria over the past five years.

A Freedom of Information request shows that the North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, which is responsible for both the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital, spent the money over the five-year period 2011/12 to 2015/16.

The findings also reveal that there were 118 callouts to north Cumbria hospitals over the same period.

While 30 callouts were made by the North Cumbria Trust in 2014/15 - more than any other year - only £2,358 was spent.

The most expensive year for the trust was 2015/16, when £6,626 was spent on 19 callouts.

The least money spent by the trust was in 2011/12, when 26 callouts were made at a cost of £2,089.

Meanwhile in 2012/13, £2,179 was spent on 28 callouts, while the following year - 2013/14 - 15 callouts came at a cost of £3,132.

Findings from the FoI request show that there were nearly 5,000 pest control call-outs by NHS trusts to hospitals in England in 2015/16 - equivalent to around 13 a day.

The 87 trusts - out of 150 - that responded said pests included cockroaches and rats, and had been spotted in areas including maternity wards, children's intensive care units and operating theatres.

The amount of money hospitals spent on treating pests reached nearly £1.1m in the year to March 2016 and the overall figure is likely to be far higher, with only 87 trusts responding.

Topping the list was Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust, where spending almost doubled between 2011/12 and 2015/16, from £67,425 to £132,210 - by far the highest of the trusts which responded.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "Hospitals must have an effective pest control policy and the use of experts is good practice to ensure that buildings are kept clean and safe for patients."