Hi!
My problem is that I ALWAYS get the negative reputation "award" in the end of the year about "handymen not maintining the machines well". Why is that? I have plenty of handymen with repairing priority, no machines ever exploding, and if they get low, I order the handymen to repair them. What am I doing wrong?

I have the same problem, but I never remember having the issue when I played the game in 1997. No idea what the cause is but I think it's probably due to a Windows compatibility issue.

I just happened to be perusing Theme Hospital tip sites today and I saw a few notes about handymen, specifically keeping them active ie DOING THEIR JOB! :P

Evidently if there is a lot of unused areas in the hospital the handymen still walk around them and get tired despite there being no maintenance or traffic in them. When they get tired they stop working and shit doesn't get fixed. The solution was to try blocking off unused hallways and wings with benches or maybe even turn the hall into a separate room to cut off an unused area.

Another thing I read was when you think you have enough handymen, GET MORE!

Now I've just started playing myself and haven't had a chance to try these tips but they seemed logical enough so I thought I'd pass them along.

Worrying about it at all.