25% of trusts miss superbug targets

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Fewer trusts than last year can show they maintain standards on cleanliness and hygiene, despite a Government drive to get the message across.

The news comes just weeks after the Healthcare Commission warned that hospitals will be served with "improvement notices" if they fail to tackle bugs.

The new report, based on trust's self-reporting on whether they meet a set of 24 core government standards on care show that 40% of trusts believe they met all core standards in 2006/07 - up from 34% in 2005/06.

But the picture relating to hygiene was poor, with 56 trusts (14%) saying they had not met, or had insufficient evidence to say they met, the standard on properly decontaminating reusable medical devices such as theatre instruments.

A total of 55 trusts (14%) could not prove they met the standard on keeping patients safe by reducing the risk from infections like C diff, double the 7% who said the same thing last year. Some 43 trusts (11%) could not show they met the standard on areas being clean and buildings being in good order.

Four trusts did not meet any of the three standards relating to hygiene. These were the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, Sheffield Primary Care Trust, Sutton and Merton Primary Care Trust and Wiltshire Primary Care Trust.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "The declarations are as yet unvalidated and the Healthcare Commission is checking these against other intelligence.

"However, it is encouraging that for many standards over 90% of trusts were able to report compliance and more trusts say they are meeting all of the standards, which if confirmed would be a significant success.

"Where there is evidence of a problem, it is important that individual organisations ensure that they have plans and processes in place to improve."