A HOSPITAL trust has welcomed the latest initiative to tackle superbugs after hospitals across Worcestershire went 47 days without a single case of MRSA.

The Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has welcomed the Government's latest document Clean, Safe, Care - Reducing Infections And Saving Lives.

John Rostill, chief executive for the Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trusts, said: "It demonstrates that infection prevention and control is high on the Government's agenda, and indeed high on the agenda of the NHS.

"It emphasises that this is not just an acute trust issue and that it is important that action is taken right across the whole health economy.

The chairmen and chief executives of the Worcestershire Primary Care Trust, the Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership and the Acute Hospital Trust met last Tuesday to discuss issues such as infection.

One of the outcomes of the meeting was to reinforce the responsibilities of a county-wide forum dealing with control of infection across all NHS organisations.

Mr Rostill said the new strategy builds on other initiatives already announced and would mean the introduction of screening for MRSA for all waiting list admissions by March next year.

The acute trust went 47 days without a case of MRSA up until December 23 and there has not been a case since.

A new bare below the elbows' dress code for hospitals came into force at the beginning of this year to help reduce MRSA.

Every hospital has to have a deep clean by March and under this particular initiative this trust has been allocated £1.2m from the Strategic Health Authority and Worcestershire PCT. Mr Rostill said robust plans were already in place to spend the money by the end of the financial year and that deep cleaning introduced at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch in advance of Worcester has already begun to show some reduction in the infection figures.