Ministers have set out new cleaning standards for hospitals in a bid to beat the MRSA "superbug".

On Tuesday health minister Lord Warner published revised national specifications for cleanliness following increasing levels of public and media concern over the infection which is hitting up to 100,000 patients per year.

The issue has shot up the political agenda in recent months and the move was the latest in a series of Department of Health announcements.

However the Conservatives have branded the government's approach as "gimmicks" and plegded to make fighting infections one of five key priorities.

But Lord Warner said a revised healthcare facilities cleaning manual that is to be sent to all hospitals along with recommended minimum cleaning frequencies would make a difference.

"Hospital cleanliness and reducing infection rates are everyone's business," he said.

"This guidance sets out clearly how often different areas of a hospital should be cleaned and what level of cleanliness is required.

"This means both hospitals and cleaning firms know what is expected.

"This is just the latest step in our drive to improve cleanliness and lower rates of infection."

Inspections

The government also published the results of a cleanliness inspection programme which found that hospitals in England have shown a sharp improvement in performance during the course of the year.

Nearly half of hospitals were rated as excellent or good by the Department's Patient Environment Action Team, while another 49 per cent were considered to have acceptable standards.

Just 27 hospitals were considered to be poor or unnaceptable whereas 90 were earlier in the year.
     
And chief nursing officer Christine Beasley said the "clean your hands" publicity campaign launched this year and directed at NHS staff was proving to be a success.

"The uptake of the campaign is another encouraging sign of the staff and patients in the NHS working together to combat infection," she said.

'Scandal'

However shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said Labour had now launched 22 initiatives on cleanliness since the party came to power in 1997.

"It is a national scandal," he said. "Over the last seven years, deaths from MRSA have doubled.

"It has been clear for years that the actions required included closing wards and giving patients the right to refuse hospitals or wards where there is infection. Nurses should have the power to stop admissions to wards."

And writing in the Independent newspaper party leader Michael Howard described how his mother-in-law died after contracting MRSA.

"We can clean our hospitals and stop this waste of life," he says.

"But more gimmicks and stunts from a government that is all talk will never do so.  It is time for a government who will."

Unison, the largest health service trade union, added that standards would be best improved by employing more cleaners.