An 'outraged' woman was disgusted when she found bins overflowing with tissue at a Southampton hospital toilet.

On Thursday, Brenda Harvey, 57, went to Southampton General Hospital with her sister and brother-in-law, Manda and Brian, as he was having a scan for his broken foot.

When she used the toilet booth by the reception, she could not believe the mountain of tissue paper she was confronted with, piled high on top of the bin and scattered next to it.

Brenda was so shocked, she took a picture and shared it on her Facebook page.

Overflowing bins at one of the toilets at Southampton General HospitalOverflowing bins at one of the toilets at Southampton General Hospital (Image: Brenda Harvey)

She said: “I found it really off-putting that it could have been left in that state. For the bins to be left overflowing like that was abominable.”

Skirting the rancid pile of paper, she relieved herself, went to reception and alerted staff to what she had found.

She said: “The lady then said to me that they had been made aware of this and someone would take care of it.

"I thought to myself, if they had been made aware of this before then how long have the toilets been left like this?

“In this day and age, you wouldn’t expect to see it in a hospital, especially not a hospital like the General.”

After a hot chocolate with her relatives, she found out that the bins had finally been emptied.

Still furious about what happened days later, Brenda said: "Tissues left like that could spread illnesses, and the fact they had been made aware of this, it was early in the morning so it should have been resolved straight away, it’s not a hard task.

“I am still outraged by this. Have they got an issue with staffing?”

A spokesperson for University Hospital Southampton said: “We’ve been made aware of a photograph of an overflowing bin which was posted on an individual’s social media account.

“Our toilets are cleaned at regular intervals and action will always be taken as quickly as possible when additional issues are reported outside of these periods.

“If someone reports an incident to us this information will be passed on accordingly and if they have any concerns about how that has been handled we would advise they contact our patient support service with this information directly so it can be investigated and responded to appropriately.”