LITTER and rubbish outside entrances at Ipswich Hospital is so bad that visitors are given a "disgusting" welcome, it has been claimed today.Margaret Stevens spoke out about the mess after her husband Ian was treated at the hospital earlier this month.

LITTER and rubbish outside entrances at Ipswich Hospital is so bad that visitors are given a "disgusting" welcome, it has been claimed today.

Margaret Stevens spoke out about the mess after her husband Ian was treated at the hospital earlier this month.

Mrs Stevens said she had been shocked at the amount of cigarette butts, crisp packets and drinks cups left lying around outside the hospital.

She said: "I have been disgusted beyond imagination at the state outside the hospital.

"In the car park area there is a cycle shed and there must be thousands of cigarette ends, it's disgusting.

"An awful lot of germs must come in from outside on people's feet, the hospital should be ashamed."

Mr Stevens, 74, was treated at the hospital for three days earlier this month and his wife said the couple had also made several visits to clinics.

Mrs Stevens, 73 of Chelmondiston said: "He went in on the eighth and came out on the tenth, but the weeks before that he had to go up a few times for tests and each time we went I thought this can't be right."

However, she added that even when people have the opportunity to use bins by a hospital entrance, they seem to ignore it.

She said: "There is a seat on one side of the entrance and on the other side there's a bin but two don't go together and people just throw their cups, crisp packets and cigarette ends on the floor."

Jan Rowsell, of Ipswich Hospital, said it was known that people dropped large amounts of litter and appealed for them to use bins.

"We try really hard to have a welcoming environment at the hospital. We need the community's help to make that as good as possible.

"It is people using the hospital who drop the litter and don't use the bins."

She said the hospital was the size of a small town and it suffered from the same problems as many other towns.

She added: "With the money that we have got available we try really hard to keep it as clean as we can do. Every day of the week there is eight thousand people on site and whilst we do have staff who go round every day picking up and sweeping up, if people drop it quicker it's a real difficulty.

"This is a 46 acre site and most of the site is litter free.

"We need to ask people to respect this is a centre of healthcare and put things in the bin."

Do you think the hospital grounds are clean enough? Write in to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk