Joe Wallen
PATIENTS attending the Hospital de La Línea were gobsmacked to see rats running freely in the building.
While many patients have previously claimed to have seen the vermin while staying in the hospital, this is the first time they have been clearly caught on camera.
Click here to view the toe-curling footage.
The rats were filmed in the waiting room of a triage area which is the busiest in the entire hospital.
The triage room in question is also next to an emergency room and a specialist facility for children suffering from serious medical problems.
There had been previous grainy videos shot of rats in nearby operating rooms in the same hospital, as well as infestations of cockroaches and mosquitoes.
Rats can transmit a number of serious diseases including the deadly Hantavirus, Salmonellosis, Rat-bite fever and Leptospirosis.
Those in hospitals with weakened immune systems would be particularly vulnerable to these serious conditions.
The Cívica en Defensa del Hospital y la Salud, a civic group which seeks to maintain acceptable standards within the Hospital de La Línea have understandably expressed their outrage.
“We know that this is a tremendous embarrassment for the local health services and the efforts they make to maintain this old hospital which has the same problems as a third world hospital.
“This is further urgent evidence for a new hospital and for permits to carry out the renovation of this hospital,” a representative from the group commented.
