WORCESTER MP Michael Foster says he is immensely impressed by the precautions being taken by Worcestershire Royal Hospital to prevent "superbug" infections.

Mr Foster spent an afternoon on the wards yesterday as part of NHS Think Clean Day.

He met three modern matrons, who with the director of nursing, took him to see how visitors to the hospital, medical staff and support workers are encouraged to keep the hospital clean and free from infections, such as MRSA - cases of which have been falling at the Royal over the last 12 months.

"The management have taken important steps to inform visitors of their role in keeping the hospital infection free, such as using alcohol gels when they enter wards and not sitting on patients' beds when visiting.

"But the single biggest help is using the gels, available in dispensers outside every ward.

"It is important to drive down infections, to make our hospitals as clean as they can be and from what I have seen, hospital staff are determined to make it happen."