THE battle against the hospital superbug is being won at the Royal Bolton Hospital, new figures reveal.

In a pattern that bucks that national trend, there has been a reduction in reported cases of MRSA by almost 25 per cent over the last 12 months.

Across the UK, figures have increased by an average of 3.6 per cent.

Hospital bosses are delighted with the news, but have vowed to eradicate MRSA entirely from wards.

Director of nursing and performance management Lesley Doherty said: "In the past 12 months we have reduced the number of cases of MRSA by 10. We had 38 cases last year and 28 this year.

"Nationally the number of cases has gone up by 3.6 per cent so we are extremely pleased.

"We want to eradicate it completely while patients are with us."

This time last year between four and five new cases of MRSA were being reported in the hospital every month, but now that has fallen to an average of two.

Hospital chiefs introduced a range of measures to tackle the problem of superbug infections, including strict hand washing on all wards, a poster campaign highlighting the importance of clean hands and the introduction of special hand cleaners on every ward.

Mrs Doherty said: "We've kept the restrictions in place for visiting times and we discourage visitors from coming to the hospital if they are at all unwell.

"We've done a lot of work with staff to make them aware of the importance of washing their hands and we're now trying to educate members of the public who come into the hospital."

Patients being admitted to the hospital are screened to determine if they are carriers of the superbug and given treatment if necessary.

At any one time across the country, one in 11 patients is suffering from a hospital-acquired infection which in many cases is MRSA.

The number of death certificates where MRSA is recorded as contributory has shown a 15-fold increase since 1992, to 1,000 a year.

Data shows that MRSA infection rates in Britain are among the worst in Europe, with NHS patients 40 times more likely to catch the superbug than their continental counterparts.