AN expos of Worcestershire Royal Hospital revealing an "appalling standard of cleanliness" is due to be screened tonight.

Undercover reporters for the BBC claim they found "unacceptable hygiene levels", including soiled dressings and medication hidden under beds, during the investigation.

The report also revealed an overworked nurse taking blood from a patient - without gloves. There was also evidence that excrement had not been cleared up.

The BBC1 programme Kenyon Confronts, screened at 7.30pm tonight, is based on experiences at three hospitals built and run under the Government's Private Finance Initiative.

And the Royal was singled out for criticism by Malcolm Hollis, professor of architecture at Reading University, for being badly designed.

"It is the worst," he said. "It has a muddled design layout and some of the corridors are so narrow it becomes very difficult to get a bed and two people either side carrying a drip or looking after a patient."

However, John Rostill, chief executive of the Worcestershire NHS Trust said such "theatre television" should be taken with a pinch of salt.

"I understood this to be a programme about the advantages and disadvantages of PFI hospitals, yet the BBC refused to interview me to give a balanced and sensible view," he said.

"This is a half-hour programme, covering PFI schemes. It's a mix of fact and fiction. The BBC has been, at best, vague and, at worst, dismissive. I don't know what has been contrived or not."

Other hospitals examined in the programme include the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and the award-winning Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford.

The team of reporters found bags of discarded clinical waste left in corridors, high bed occupancy and bed shortages.