A hospital has gone back to basics after a new high-tech cleaning system failed to prevent superbug infections.

Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, West Midlands, has reinstated mops and buckets of bleach after a system hailed in Parliament as “revolutionary” failed to achieve the expected results.

The new “microfibre” technology uses materials specially developed to penetrate surfaces at a finer level than cloths or mops. Made from a special fabric that splits the yarn into thousands of fibres, each less than 100th the width of a human hair, the tiny fibres provide a huge surface area to pick up dirt, requiring less effort and detergent than traditional cloths or mops.

When it was introduced a year ago, Elizabeth Rees, consultant microbiologist at the Dudley Group of Hospitals, said: “We trialled this new system extensively to ensure it will meet the highest standards across the trust.”

But yesterday managers said that more traditional approach-es had been revived in order to deal with outbreaks of Clostridium difficile (C. diff), a spore-forming bacterium that is especially hard to eliminate. “The trust has introduced bleach cleaning throughout Russells Hall Hospital,” a statement said. “A decision is yet to be made as to whether this form of cleaning will remain in the longer term.”

A worker at the hospital said: “You’d say it was funny, but the money for this kind of thing is coming from us taxpayers. They spent a lot, and it clearly doesn’t work very well, so they have had to go back to the old mop, bleach and buckets.”

A report by the Dutch research organisation TNO found that, although the microfibre system cleaned more quickly and thoroughly than conventional cleaning, it was no better at removing microorganisms.

Explore Health

• Expert Advice

• Health Features

• Mental Health

• Alternative Medicine

• Child Health