The number of patients in British hospitals dying from superbug infections has reached more than 10,000 every year, according to an expert.

The new figure is about 20% higher than the official toll of 8,000 a year.

Mark Enright, professor of molecular epidemiology at Imperial College London, said that the real number of those succumbing to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile (C difficile) in the UK is higher than the government’s records show.

“I think it is at least 10,000 a year,” he said. “A lot of people are never tested for these infections and their deaths are put down to something else.”

“Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are now so well established here, we will never get rid of them,” said Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University and a world expert.

Latest European figures show that Britain’s hospitals are still teeming with treatment-resistant bacteria.

While strict hygiene measures have ensured low infection rates in other countries, microbiologists here are privately admitting that Britain’s problem is so out of control, it will be impossible to prevent the high level of deaths from continuing.

The government’s pledge to reduce rates of MRSA to half the 2004 level is unattainable, they say.

According to figures from Eurosurveillance, at least 42% of MRSA bacteria in British hospitals are “superstrains”, compared with rates of 20% or lower elsewhere.

In the 31-nation European antisuperbug league table, Britain lies close to the bottom, with an infection-control performance better than those of only Malta, Greece, Portugal and Romania.

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