Anything that will contribute to reducing the rate of infection by MRSA in hospitals in the UK is valuable. So far the NHS is making only modest progress in reducing the number of such infections, and is likely to miss its target of halving the number of blood-borne MRSA infections by 2008.

So replacing stainless steel with copper may be worth a try. There is evidence that bacteria find it harder to survive on the surface of some metals, and silver-coated catheters have already been introduced in some hospitals to take advantage of this.

Unfortunately, the experiment is unlikely to provide very complete or convincing answers. MRSA infections vary greatly from ward to ward, depending largely on how many patients admitted to the hospital are already infected, so a simple comparison between a ward fitted with copper and one fitted with stainless steel is unlikely to be conclusive.

There is also considerable difference of opinion over how effective it is to sterilise surfaces. There are many products on the market than can sterilise a ward - using sprays of antiseptic or hydrogen peroxide, for example - and some evidence that by doing so MRSA transmission can be slowed.

But many patients are already carrying MRSA when they go into hospital. What happens there allows the bacterium to get into surgical wounds or into the bloodstream, where it is much more dangerous. Often it is carried on the hands of doctors and nurses who do not wash their hands often enough and may in this way be passed on to other patients.

Reducing the rate of re-infection from surfaces may help, but it is unlikely to be a panacea. What really needs to happen is that all patients are screened for MRSA on admission, and isolated if they have it. Particular attention needs to be paid to areas of the hospital where MRSA infection is most likely - intensive care units, burns units, kidney dialysis and transplant units are all examples - and scrupulous attention paid to cleanliness.

MRSA is not insuperable. There are units that have never suffered it. The problem is that standards vary greatly between hospitals and even between parts of the same hospital. Copper may have a part to play but it is likely to be a relatively small one.

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