A porter at Epsom Hospital has been sacked, after reports of a stray cat wandering around A&E wards caused an infection scare.

A deep clean was ordered after bosses discovered a cat asleep in a linen cupboard during a routine check, according to the Sun.

The newspaper published pictures of the Burmese cat called Monty sprawled across a desk and in a stand-off with a rat on hospital grounds.

Trust chiefs denied the cat had been kept as a pet and said the non-patient area where the cat found has been fully decontaminated.

The porter, who had worked at the hospital for 28 years, was dismissed after he was allegedly caught on CCTV sitting on a hospital bed stroking the cat.

A spokesman for the hospital said: "As a busy hospital trust, our first priority has to be the health and wellbeing of our patients and that includes protecting people from the risk of infection

"As such, when it came to light that an animal had entered one of our hospital sites, we immediately launched an investigation.

"In order to determine the facts of the matter, we needed to install additional CCTV cameras in a storage area of the hospital.

"As a result of the investigation, a member of contracted staff has since been dismissed for neglecting their duties whilst at work (including lying down for long periods when they should have been working), and we found evidence that the cat had been on site in this non-patient, storage area.

"We would like to assure all of our patients, visitors and local people that we have taken this matter very seriously."

Monty has been returned to his neighbor, who lives nearby to the hospital.