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

Following a media furore over the infection in recent months, John Reid said that a new Department of Health blueprint published on Monday 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 but that hospital trusts must take responsibility for their own standards.

Those which fail to meet minimum standards will be issued with demands for action plans, the Cabinet minister pledged.

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

"Cleanliness remains a major patient concern and MRSA is a growing problem," Reid said.

"My approach is to be open about this. Cleanliness contributes to controlling infection, but preventing infections requires more than just cleanliness.

"Because MRSA rates vary from hospital to hospital I want the whole NHS to learn from the best at home and abroad.

"So I will fly in experts from countries with low MRSA to advise the NHS on improving infection control."

Reid also said the government would focus on research into the causes of the infection.

"Improved cleanliness alone will not alone tackle the problem of superbugs like MRSA," he said.

"The problem with MRSA is its resistance to drugs that worked against it in the past.

"So I will host a MRSA science summit to learn how to best tackle ever-mutating infection."

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the problem of infections, which affects as many as 10,000 NHS patients per year, was a result of Labour's management style.

"After seven years, during which MRSA has doubled, the government has produced several reports, the latest of which was only seven months ago," the Conservative said.

"This demonstrates forcibly how the government's top down structure for managing the NHS has failed.

"What is required is for hospitals to have the independence and responsibility needed to adopt good practice and to be accountable through patient choice."

Liberal Democrat spokesman Paul Burstow said ministers must "re-learn the lessons Florence Nightingale taught over 100 years ago".

"Basic hygiene, good hand washing, effective screening and isolation of patients with MRSA need to become second nature in NHS," he argued.

However he argued that MRSA was not the only infection causing problems.

"Over half of the infections picked up in hospital are not MRSA," he said.

"It's time these other superbugs registered on the radar too.

"The government must collect and publish the facts about the true level of infection in the NHS. MRSA is just the tip of the iceberg."