There was a Burmese cat rat catcher at Epsom Hospital!
Allegedly an NHS porter brought a Burmese cat, Monty, into Epsom Hospital Surrey, England routinely and allowed Monty to roam around including in Accident and Emergency.
A routine inspection found Monty in a linen cupboard. A porter who has worked at the hospital for 28 years was sacked summarily. I will guess therefore that Monty was his cat and that he had decided to bring him in. We don’t know if the intention was for Monty to catch rats but the picture above shows him in a face off with one!
The porter was caught on CCTV sitting on a hospital bed stroking Monty. A union representative said that management had gone nuts. They were worried about the spread of infection.
To be frank the spread of infection from domestic cat is next to zero. It is far more likely that a patient will get an infection from another person at hospital. In fact hospitals in the UK are rife with human-spread infections which are antibiotic resistant.
An infection expert Prof Pennington said:
“It is beyond belief hospital staff would dream of homing a cat. Hospitals are supposed to be spotlessly clean to limit the spread of infection. The cat could be shedding hair, carrying fleas or leaving poo around.”
Yes, but hospitals in the UK are not spotlessly clean and cats are. Hair does not spread infection. Fleas do bite humans but did Monty have fleas? If he is litter trained he wouldn’t poop on the floor.
Also therapy dogs and cats visit hospices from time to time so I think the infection scare has been overplayed.
It is a strange thing to do though and bound to end in tears for the person who did it. Monty is a handsome Burmese.
Source: LBC radio and The Sun.
What happened to Monty?
Good question. I’ll guess. He belongs to the porter and Monty is now at home with his human guardian while his guardian looks for a new job. Thanks for asking.
With all the safety codes and JCAHO standards required in hospitals in the US, I cannot even imagine a cat being allowed to live on the premises in a hospital. But do I agree with it all? No. Cats are one of the cleanest animals in the world. Nosocomial, or healthcare-associated infections (HIAs) are notorious killers. The facts speak for themselves. 😑😱