TO the vast majority of viewers, the mauling Worcestershire Royal Hospital received in the Tonight with Trevor McDonald undercover television probe, last night, will have been just another soundbite in the MRSA superbug debate.

For residents in the county, however, its resonance will have been much greater.

That fact alone makes hospital trust chief executive John Rostill's reaction vital to the confidence that patients carry in to the Royal from now on.

We're encouraged that he has rejected the majority of the investigation's findings as either "patently nonsensical" and "outlandish and outrageous", and accused the makers of "blurring over" facts.

Instead, he has pointed to the progress the hospital has made since this time last year, when it was dealing with 15 MRSA cases every quarter.

However, he could do nothing but hold up his hands when the programme revealed an accumulation of dust beneath a bed in the Maple ward.

It was, in the words of former nurse and TV agony aunt Claire Rayner, "shocking".

Mr Rostill has stopped short of demanding an apology from Sir Trevor's team, preferring to focus on the progress his team is making. It's probably the right thing to do.

Such lack of hygiene is inexcusable, of course. But the rest of the so-called evidence was far from cast-iron, at best. Indeed, some of it was weak.

If the programme deliberately set out to make an example of the Royal, then it fell short.

Whether it filled you with confidence about using the hospital, we'll leave Maple ward and Mr Rostill to decide.