The government is to turn up the heat on trusts over rising levels of hospital infections by showing the public the true scale of the problem.

There is increasing political pressure to bring infection rates down and PCTs recently had to sign up to local targets to reduce cases of Clostridium difficile (or C difficile).

Cases of the more widely known MRSA fell by 5% to 3,400 in the first nine months of last year, but the threat from C difficile is much more widespread with nearly 43,000 cases in the same period.

Infection with the bacterium is the biggest cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea and colitis and can be fatal.

To aid reduction efforts, cases will now be reported on the basis of where they occur, rather than where they are reported from as at present.

The Department of Health hopes the new system - based on an existing one for MRSA - will stop patients, their families and medical advisors being misled about infection rates at different hospitals.

pharmafocus@wiley.co.uk