Hospitals with the worst records for superbug deaths

The London hospitals with the worst record for superbug deaths were named today.

West Middlesex, Whipps Cross and St Thomas' hospitals were among those with the highest percentage of deaths caused by MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

It is the first time a league table of hospital deaths by superbug has been released.

The figures, released by the Office for National Statistics, reveal that St Thomas' in Lambeth and St Mary's in Westminster have some of the worst records for MRSA.

Homerton hospital and King George's in Ilford are among the worst for C. diff.

Overall, one of the worst hospitals is West Middlesex hospital in Isleworth, which recorded high rates for both superbugs.

A total of 107 people died there after being infected with C. diff between 2002 and 2006, making the superbug the cause of 2.2 per cent of all deaths. Thirty four deaths - or 0.7 per cent - were caused by MRSA.

The figures are almost as high as those recorded by Maidstone hospital, which was at the centre of the country's-worst superbug outbreak. Ninety people died there and more than 1,100 were infected after an outbreak of C. diff was linked to appalling hygiene standards between 2004 and 2006.

The ONS report shows St Thomas' recorded 50 deaths - 0.88 per cent - caused by MRSA, while at Whipps Cross in Leytonstone 1.57 per cent of deaths were due to C. diff.

It also shows that more people overall died with C. diff than MRSA.

An ONS spokesman said the figures were being released because of growing public demand for information on deaths from superbugs. He said the figures related to where patients died, not where they caught the infections.

A spokeswoman for Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust said: "We take issues around infection control extremely seriously.

"It is important the public have confidence when they are treated at Whipps Cross and they are aware that currently the trust has some of the lowest rates for MRSA and C. diff infection in London. In the past five years the trust has made significant investment in tackling infection control, including improving isolation facilities and screening all patients on admission for MRSA."

Trust chief executive Dr Lucy Moore added: "We have worked extremely hard to ensure our infection control measures work.

"This has resulted in dramatic reductions in the numbers of our patients acquiring C .diff while in our care."

The report comes after it was revealed that patients are more likely to catch MRSA in British hospitals than almost anywhere else in Europe.

A report yesterday claimed there is a 45 per cent chance that those admitted to hospital in the UK will catch the superbug, higher than every EU country except Portugal, Malta, Cyprus and Romania.

In the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries the risk is only between one and five per cent.

The ONS report shows the number of deaths from superbugs in the 217 hospitals and one hospice across the country which had 2,500 or more deaths from all causes between 2002 and 2006.

Some hospitals in the rest of the country were even worse than those in London. At the Royal United Hospital in Bath 268 people died from either C. diff or MRSA, more than three per cent of the totalnumber of deaths. At the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, a total of 235 people, or three per cent, with C diff died.