"Access stairway to Out patient area, and OP dept toilets"

I attended the Outpatient department of the Royal Infirmary today with my husband who was visiting the respiratory clinic.

I wear photochromic lens glasses, and on my visit to the Outpatient area today could easily have fallen down the access stairway as my lenses had darkened due to exposure to the daylight. As I approached the stairwell, no lights in the stairwell itself on the upper stairway were alight, only the one outside the upper doors, and the one at the bottom of the stairs.

This was not helped at all by the wall paint colours of grey and dark blue, which I appreciate help not to show the dirt, but I had to stand for a few minutes to let my eyes adjust to the very dim light. Any person with poor eyesight could well have not seen the top step it was so poorly lit.

As for the Outpatient toilets just past the reception area, they defy description! I realise they must be difficult to keep clean and tidy with the numbers of people who use them, but very basic elements need some attention. The door of the toilet I used had the lock almost hanging off, so that when I was in there, despite thinking I had fastened the lock, another person opened the door from the outside, causing an embarrassing moment for the two of us.

The bin for waste paper towels was overflowing, and although it has a foot pedal to presumably prevent people from using their hands to open it, thereby preventing cross infection, in actual fact, the pedal was completely inoperative, meaning one had no choice but to lift the lid with a hand, risking contamination!