The Cumberland Infirmary cost �87m to build

The claims were made in the BBC programme Kenyon Confronts.

Reporters who worked undercover at the infirmary in Carlisle found unacceptable hygiene levels and bed shortages.

The programme claimed bags of discarded clinical waste were left in corridors for hours at a time, waiting to be collected by the private company, Interserve, which maintains the hospital.

Now Interserve says it has suspended two senior managers in Carlisle and admits mistakes were made.

The company's general manager Moira Hedley, said: "Sometimes people are very busy, but we are constantly reminding people of their responsibilities.

"There was a waste bag open, we accept that, but it wasn't in a corridor, it was in a room.

Support services

"They had also run out of bag tags, but that was a blip and it is not acceptable."

Interserve has a contract to provide all non-clinical support services within the hospital for the next 45 years, with an option to review at 30 years.

The company is contracted to provide all non-clinical support services within the hospital for the next 45 years, with an option to review at 30 years.

It employs more than 320 people at the infirmary and is responsible for domestic staff and portering, catering, laundry, security and clinical and non-clinical waste management.

The �87m hospital, which opened in April 2000, was the first in the country built under the government's Public Finance Initiative (PFI).

The 444-bed site has already been criticised as having too few beds.

Health bosses had admitted it is too small to cope and have suggested an extension may have to be built.

Marie Burnham, chief executive of the North Cumbria Acute Hospitals Trust, said it was still possible for both private and public partners to work together within the NHS.