Hospitals get £50m to combat superbug threat

The money will go directly into frontline care, Health Secretary Alan Johnson said.

The number of infection inspectors on wards will be doubled.

Superbug outbreaks are on the rise, with more than 55,000 patients contracting potentially-fatal clostridium difficile last year.

Mr Johnson also said that NHS morale is low despite massive state funding.

In a veiled attack on his predecessor Patricia Hewitt, he acknowledged a lack of public confidence in the Health Service and said its staff no longer felt 'involved'.

Mr Johnson vowed to call an immediate halt to restructuring and launched a sweeping review of the NHS to be carried out by leading surgeon Sir Ara Darzi.

The review, which will report back next year, will look into better GP out-of-hours services, improving hospital cleanliness and giving more power to both patients and staff.

Doctors and other Health Service staff have expressed mounting frustration at targets, cutbacks and restructuring imposed by Whitehall.

But the Health Secretary ruled out the idea of an independent NHS board - describing the idea as another 'quango' which would not work.

'The buck stops with us,' he said, adding: 'If the morale and goodwill of the profession dissipates, then our capacity for bringing about improvement for patients diminishes.'