A new survey has revealed concerns about cleanliness in patient rooms and bathrooms in New Brunswick hospitals, but the people who clean those hospitals say they’re not to blame for complaints about hospital hygiene.

About 6,700 patients were asked about the cleanliness of their rooms and bathrooms. According to the survey, which was commissioned by the New Brunswick Health Council, 51.7 per cent of patients said their rooms were always clean, 30.4 per cent said they were usually clean,13.6 per cent said they were sometimes clean, and 4.3 per cent felt their room and bathroom were never clean.

Only 40 per cent of Moncton Hospital patients who responded said their room and bathroom was always clean and just 47 per cent said the same about the Saint John Regional Hospital.

The Horizon Health Network, which operates both hospitals, said it was disappointed with the findings and would be looking for information from other hospitals that achieved a better result.

Ralph McBride of CUPE Fredericton is also disappointed in the results. He says the people working to keep New Brunswick hospitals clean have told him there’s more to the issue than meets the eye.

“Part of the hospital system that’s going on today is the overcapacity,” says McBride. “The beds are full. We’ve got people in ER wait rooms that are on stretchers, so when that happens we’re still using the same ratio of cleaning staff, but there’s more people to clean up after and that’s a hard chore.”

Privatizing food prep and cleaning in hospitals has been on the province’s radar for some time, and New Brunswick Health Minister Victor Boudreau says the survey proves privatizing those jobs is the right decision.

“I think that justifies very well the decision we took as a government to look at bringing in a world leader like Sodexo to help us with the cleaning and ordering and food prep in our hospitals across the province,” says Boudreau.

McBride says he met with Horizon Health officials Wednesday, and he wasn’t pleased with what he heard. He says the move to privatization could put 200 people out of full-time jobs.

“We’re hearing possibly August 2017 when this possibly could happen,” he says.

It's the third time this kind of report has been issued. The next one is set for 2020.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Laura Brown