Andrew Lansley, opposition health spokesman, accused the government of taking too long to address the problem and said something had “gone wrong” within the Department of Health.

In a report published earlier this month, the Healthcare Commission, the National Health Service inspectorate, found that a “litany” of errors led to at least 1,170 patients being infected in outbreaks of C. difficile at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust over two years.

Alan Johnson, health secretary, told parliament he had received the report on October 9. But the Conservatives alleged that the health department had received an initial draft report on May 3 and a further draft on September 12.

Mr Lansley said: “As health secretary, Alan Johnson has the power to suspend NHS board members, so why wasn’t this exercised until after patients and the media learnt the contents of the report?”

The DoH said: “The report received on May 3 was an early outline of the final report, and did not contain either recommendations or conclusions for ministers.”

From:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0d6e1010-8038-11dc-b075-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

Coming only days after Health Direct learnt that labour’s own MRSA report was buried as it carried bad news, this new report compounds the culpability of labour health ministers.

As 40 to 50 people every week die from MRSA, Clostridium Difficile and other superbugs in UK hospitals, it’s the equivalent of a plane crash every month.

Every week that labour ministers and health officials bury their heads in the sand and ignore warnings there will be a growing and huge outcry when the general public wake up to their negligence.