The discovery of rats in a ward of a hospital in Naples kept hospital hygiene in the headlines on Wednesday.
The haematology ward of Naples' Vecchio Policlinico was shut down on Tuesday after patients spotted two rats scuttling across the floor.
Pest control officials had only just finished dealing with a prior case of rat infestation on the same ward, hospital officials told reporters.
The incident came as health and hygiene police were busy inspecting hospitals across the country following a scare sparked by a journalistic expose' of deplorable conditions inside Rome's Umberto I - the country's biggest hospital.
The director general of Vecchio Policlinico, Luigi Muto, stressed that the building in the heart of Naples was very old and that rats were inevitable.
"We're in the city centre close to drains and sewers and abandoned buildings... It's obvious that rats can easily circulate in such conditions," Muto said.
The official in charge of hygiene standards at the hospital, Aldo Capasso, stressed that the rats were not sewer ones and probably came from nearby apartment blocks where building work was going on.
"We periodically call in pest control. There's nothing extraordinary about it... All hygiene norms are respected on the haematology ward," he said.
The Carabinieri police's health and hygiene unit NAS has been inspecting hospitals across Italy since the end of last week. The inspectors are focusing on standards of hygiene and cleanliness and whether patients' health is adequately protected.
Health Minister Livia Turco has said she will take appropriate action after studying the findings with Premier Romano Prodi.
The move follows last week's publication of a shocking report written by an Italian journalist who spent a month working undercover as a cleaner at Umberto I, which is the largest hospital in Europe.
Using a small hidden camera, journalist Fabrizio Gatti photographed and filmed dirty floors and corridors, hazardous refuse that had been abandoned inside the Rome hospital, staff smoking outside the children's intensive care unit and cleaning mops and brooms that were old and soiled.
NAS officers have since carried out several inspections of the hospital, a sprawling structure under the management of Rome's La Sapienza University.
The health ministry has expressed particular concern about the possible impact of poor hygiene on hospital infection levels.
Every year, between 4,500-7,000 patients die in Italy because of infections contracted while in hospital.
Hospital infections are considered a factor in another 21,000 patient deaths while up to 700,000 patients contract non-fatal infections.
In 2005, 6.7% of all hospital patients had infections which could have been avoided in at least 30% of cases.
Piero Marrazzo, who heads the regional government of Lazio of which Rome is the capital, is calling for a thorough review of hospital cleaning contracts, saying outside contractors should have their deals revoked or suffer penalties if they are found to be at fault in any way.
In his article for the news weekly L'Espresso, Gatti reported that the four floors of Umberto I's eye care unit were cleaned by two people hired by the contractor Pultra without the aid of any industrial cleaning machines.
He noted that the 2005 contract for Pultra's services had set the hospital back 8.687 million euros.
Gatti said he discovered areas of the hospital which were being used as rubbish tips with piled-up waste that included material labelled as "dangerous and infective".
At one point, Gatti came across some dog excrement in a corridor which he said was left there for three days.
Other episodes highlighted by the reporter included the abandonment of thousands of confidential patient files in a corridor and the lack of security measures on the infectious disease and radiology wards.
ARRESTS IN MILAN.
Meanwhile, in a separate case in Milan on Wednesday, police arrested eight people including several doctors for fraud and corruption after a private clinic was found to be illegally raking in money from the local government.
Investigators said managers and doctors of the San Carlo clinic falsified medical records and other documents in order to obtain inflated reimbursements from the local government amounting to more than one million euros since 2001.
The clinic is accused of obtaining double payments for operations, first from the private patient and a second time from the local government.
Investigators said that in one case, the clinic was reimbursed 55,000 euros for a simple varicose vein operation - the equivalent of a year's stay in hospital.
In another case, the clinic claimed back 1,900 euros for the removal of a patient's mole - an operation that would have cost 28 euros on the national health.
