Eric Long, whose wife Angela was diagnosed with MRSA on April 23, read a report in the Herald on May 23 in which an East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust infection specialist said there had been no MRSA cases in two-and-a-half months. He said, "I thought, somebody is telling lies."

It has now emerged that the trust does not include MRSA 'colonisation' in its figures.

If a patient has the bug in their body they will not be included in hospital-produced statistics. If it is found in a blood test and infection is suspected they will.

Eric Long's wife was found to have MRSA almost five weeks after being transferred to the DGH from a neurological centre in Haywards Heath having broken her neck falling down the stairs.

Mr Long believes she contracted it because she was not cared for properly in the Seaford Four ward. He said, "I think my wife was in the hospital and she came out worse than she went in."

A Mrs Bradley also contacted the Herald to say, "My family and I were horrified to read the report in your newspaper stating that the DGH had been MRSA free for the last two-and -a-half months.

"Our father was operated on in the hospital on April 21 and swabbed after the operation for MRSA. He contracted MRSA on April 27 and unfortunately he passed away on May 4 due to MRSA pneumonia contracted in the DGH."

Poppy Bunn also was certain her 70-year-old sister, who did not wish to be named, picked up the antibiotic-resistant bug in the DGH. Her sister was informed she had MRSA by Cuckmere Ward nurses in April but, according to Mrs Bunn, was not isolated from other patients due to a lack of beds.

The emphysema sufferer was later moved to the Jevington Ward where she spotted a sign on the ward opposite. Mrs Bunn said, "She told me there was a big notice saying nobody was to go into the ward because there was MRSA in there but there was nothing like that in my sister's case.

There was no fuss made about it at all."

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, is an infection which resists treatment using antibiotics. Many people harmlessly carry it on their skin but it is more likely to strike in hospitals where patients' immune systems are low.

The hospital trust was unable to comment on the individual patients who contracted the infection but lead infection control nurse Tina Lloyd repeated the assertion that there were no cases of MRSA bacteraemia in the past three months.

She said, "All trusts are measured against a national target of the number of MRSA bacteraemia cases, which is where patients have MRSA isolated from a blood culture.

"Blood cultures are taken when patients experience serious illness and infection is suspected. If bacteria is found in the patient's blood culture this is a bacteraemia and is used to assist in the diagnosis of the patient's infection.

"A clear distinction is needed between MRSA colonisation and infection. Colonisation is where MRSA is found on a patient's skin, up their nose or within the throat and there are no clinical signs of infection.
"Most cases of MRSA that are identified are colonisation."

She said the trust, which also manages the Conquest hospital in Hastings, was one of the first to screen all elective and emergency patients for MRSA.