HEALTH chiefs have slammed snooping reporters from a national newspaper who claim to have found evidence of the 'superbug' MRSA in public areas at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

The Sun surreptitiously gained entry to the Royal earlier this week and took swabs from door handles, lift buttons and taps.

Their investigation came after Droitwich man Ken Sutton claimed to have caught the potentially deadly MRSA nine times in Worcester hospitals after operations to rebuild his leg following a motorbike accident - he eventually had to have his right kneecap removed.

But John Rostill, chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, has branded The Sun's test results - due to be published today - as "irrelevant and misleading" and said they should be ignored.

"This looks very much like scare-mongering masquerading as science," he told the Worcester News.

"We strongly dispute the accuracy of these tests and suspect the methods used to analyse the results are seriously flawed."

He added that MRSA bacteria is often found in public areas, in hospitals, in the community and on many people - and causes no ill-effect whatsoever.

"What is important is that we are aware of this and make sure that our staff take every possible precaution to make sure that any infections are not passed on to patients."

The Trust's director of infection prevention and control, Dr Chris Catchpole, said public areas are not 'sterile' and it is entirely expected to find bacteria on surfaces, particularly those regularly touched.

"Our hand hygiene policy reflects this by recommending use of alcohol gel or handwashing on entry and exit from clinical areas and before and

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after patient contact," he added.

"Ensuring good hygiene - for staff, patients and visitors - is proven to reduce infection rates, and this is where our efforts will continue to be focussed."

The Worcester News has commissioned a laboratory technician from Worcestershire Royal Hospital to carry out swab tests in a variety of public spaces around the city - including our own offices - to find out how much bacteria really is lurking in our midst. These results will be compared to swab tests taken from the Royal. Find out the results next week.