Howard: highlighting superbug concerns

The Conservative leader has challenged the prime minister over the government's "failure to take action" on MRSA.

Michael Howard used the weekly Commons question time on Wednesday to accuse of Tony Blair of "pulling the wool over the eyes" of voters on the Department of Health's record on the hospital "superbug".

Following the announcement this week that hospital matrons will be given new powers to improve hospital cleanliness, Howard said ministers were simply recycling old news.

"When is the government going to stop talking and allow doctors and nurses to take action?" he asked.

He also pointed to a National Audit Office report which recorded cases of matrons being overruled by NHS managers on decisions to close down infected wards because of the need to meet government waiting list targets.

Blair replied that his government had taken unprecedented steps to tackle the problem which some have estimated costs 10,000 lives per year.

"The only reason we know about MRSA is because we collected the data that the Conservatives refused to collect," he said.

"As for waiting list targets, I do not resile from that at all," the prime minister said, pointing to dramatically reduced waiting times under Labour.

He added that the Tory government's decision to privatise NHS cleaning contracts had contributed to the crisis.

But Howard produced a Department of Health report which claimed "there is no" link between the two.