Architect RTKL has rejected criticism made in a television programme this week of its "muddled" design of Worcester hospital
The half-hour documentary, called Kenyon Confronts, examined three PFI hospitals and made criticisms about standards at each.

好色先生TV appraisal expert Malcolm Hollis singled out the 拢112m Worcester Infirmary as particularly bad. He said: "I think it's the worst [of the three hospitals], with muddled design and layout."

The programme alleged that there were too few beds, that operating theatres overheated, that corridors were too narrow and that it was a confusing "maze". It also claimed that patients were in danger of infection because hygiene standards were unsatisfactory.

Worcester Infirmary was built by Bovis Lend Lease's PFI arm Catalyst Healthcare and designed by the London office of US architect RTKL.

Catalyst and RTKL rejected the criticism. An RTKL spokesperson said: "The design priority was to minimise the length of patient movement." She said that if a hospital this size was built to a standard NHS layout, patients would have to walk up to 250 m from the entrance, whereas at Worcester the maximum distance was 50 m.

The design priority was to minimise patient movement

RTKL spokesperson

The other hospitals criticised in the documentary were Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, Kent.

The 拢100m Cumberland Infirmary, developed by a joint venture between Amec and Interserve with Llewelyn-Davies as architect, was criticised by Hollis for its operating theatres, where temperatures rose to 37掳C, and for the humidity. He also complained of cramped wards.

The joint venture maintains that the hospital was compliant with space standards current when it was designed in 1997. Llewelyn-Davies was unavailable for comment.