The Tories dismissed as "pre-election trickery" figures released today showing that infections with the MRSA superbug in NHS hospitals have reached their lowest level since mandatory records began in 2001.

John Reid, the Health Secretary. welcomed the Health Protection Agency figures as a sign that the Government’s measures to clean up hospitals were starting to bite, but acknowledged that MRSA "remains a problem". Around 5,000 patients die each year from bugs picked up on the wards, including about 1,000 from MRSA.

Mr Reid announced new initiatives to step up the fight against the antibiotic-resistant bug, including a new rapid swab technique to identify patients coming into hospitals with MRSA within two hours rather than several days. It is hoped this test will be particularly helpful in preventing patients bringing the bug into hospitals from care homes.

The figures for the six months from April to September of last year show that some 3,519 NHS patients were infected with MRSA, compared to 3,940 in the previous six months and 3,598 in the same period of 2001.

Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, has made hospital-acquired infections like MRSA a central plank of his attacks on Labour stewardship of the health service. "Cleaner hospitals" is one of the Tories' five key pledges for the general election expected on May 5. Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, said: "This announcement smacks of pre-election trickery. Today's statistics fail to provide a full and rounded picture. Monthly variations may exist but 5,000 people die annually from hospital-acquired infections, more than are killed on Britain's roads.

"Rates of MRSA have doubled under Blair's Government, yet after eight years they try to blame the Conservatives for their failure. Instead of insulting the electorate's intelligence, the Government should deliver what matters to people - clean hospitals."

The Tory campaign was given a boost at the weekend by actress Leslie Ash, who told The Sunday Times that she would "do anything" to help clean up hospitals after almost dying from a strain of MRSA last year. Ash and her husband Lee Chapman, the former footballer, are suing the Chelsea and Westminster hospital for negligence.

Mr Reid hopes that today’s figures will help neutralise a potent weapon in the Tories’ battle to chip away at Labour’s lead in the polls. He urged politicians who had been "condemning" the NHS over recent weeks to congratulate staff on their apparent success in turning round the growth of MRSA.

The latest figures cover the period after the introduction of government initiatives designed to combat MRSA, including campaigns to promote hand-washing, putting matrons in charge of wards and introducing new equipment-cleaning techniques.

Mr Reid said: "These latest figures show MRSA rates at the lowest since mandatory recording began - something we introduced in 2001.

"I congratulate the hard work of NHS staff from cleaners to consultants, led by the chief nursing officer Chris Beasley, in achieving this important turning point. But there is still much more to do. That’s why I am announcing today that the NHS will pilot a new rapid swab technique to identify patients with MRSA within hours rather than days.

"This will be particularly important in discovering if MRSA is coming into our hospitals with patients, for example, when they are transferred from care homes."

The Liberal Democrat health spokesman, Paul Burstow, said: "It is good news that the rate of MRSA infections are falling, but ministers would be wise not to see this as the turning of the tide. The figures the Government is collecting are not telling the whole story.

"The Government must collect and publish the facts about the true level of infection in the NHS. But reporting on MRSA helps only if it gives patients useful information and helps doctors and nurses to learn and change the way they work.

"It is a scandal that ministers do not know how many isolation rooms there are in the NHS. There should be an urgent audit of current provision and future plans for isolation rooms.

"Ministers have let their obsession with targets and tick boxes get in the way of tackling infections. The NHS must re-learn the lessons that Florence Nightingale taught over 100 years ago. Infection control must be a top priority."

Mr Reid has told the Health Protection Agency to publish data on MRSA every six months from now on, to keep the public up to date more frequently. He said that the UK’s 9-per cent rate of hospital acquired infections was within the 6 per cent to 10 per cent range found in most modern healthcare systems. But Britain has a particular problem with MRSA.

He blamed the former Conservative Government in which Mr Howard served for failing to nip MRSA in the bud in the early 1990s, as was done in other countries like the Netherlands.

Between the early 1990s and 1997, antibiotic resistance in the bug increased from around 4 per cent to 30 per cent, making it much more difficult to bring under control, he said. And he said Britain was dealing with much more virulent strains of MRSA than other countries.

Dr Georgia Duckworth, an MRSA expert at the HPA said: "We welcome the initiatives announced by the Department of Health which help in the overall reduction of hospital acquired infections.

"We will be assisting at the Agency by carrying out the enhanced surveillance of MRSA which will collect more information about cases such as the type of ward they were acquired on, or if they were contracted in a different hospital prior to the patient’s transfer.

"All of this information will help in our understanding of MRSA and can therefore inform future control measures."

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