The health secretary has promised the government will this week crack down on hospital "superbug" MRSA.

Following a media furore over the infection in recent months, John Reid said today that a Department of Health blueprint to be published tomorrow would begin to tackle the problem.

Reid said experts from abroad will be brought into the NHS and that patients will be given more power to raise concerns about cleanliness.

He said he wanted to see "the best in the world" brought to Britain to combat the bug.

And he added that where NHS services are contracted out to the private sector the same standards must apply.

"We've got to employ patients more in observing cleanliness and giving them information," Reid told GMTV's Sunday Programme.

"We have to be more open about this, and therefore I think that we have to find some means of telling patients just how well or badly hospitals are doing, and saying to them, for instance, don't be embarrassed about saying to hospital staff, 'this isn't clean, would you please clean it?'.

"If we are going to be more open and encourage patients to take more power over this, then we have to say, 'Let's give the power to the frontline staff to deal with it'. A lot of people would say, and I have some sympathy with this, that an integral part of this is making sure that there's control at the ward level, not just by the nurses but perhaps by the matron.

"We have to assure ourselves that when contracting out has been going on, we've not been substituting cleanliness for cheapness, and therefore I want to look at that as well. And if you're going to do that locally, finally, you have to say, this will be a national priority for all hospitals... and therefore  it should be reflected in the targets and objectives we've got for everyone."