HEREFORD County Hospital has not achieved core standards to reduce cases of MRSA.

However, the number of cases is dropping - in some cases dramatically - and the hospital is satisfied that all infection control and prevention policies, procedures and guidelines are in place to tackle the problem.

But because it could not tick the box to say, at this stage, that it could give an assurance of achieving year-on-year reductions it had to report to the Healthcare Commission that it could not fully meet the core standard.

Figures supplied by the hospital this week show there were 13 cases of MRSA in March, 13 in April, seven in May and seven so far this month.

For C Difficile the reduction is more dramatic. In March there were 20 cases, in April there were 13, in May seven, and two so far this month.

Katrina Wilcox, head of corporate affairs, said the 64% improvement since March was due to a strict procedure of isolating patients, a change of policy in prescribing drugs, avoiding those that reduce immunity to the infection, and increased education.

The previous star rating system of monitoring hospitals has been abandoned and replaced by an annual health check of NHS trusts through the Healthcare Commission. Each trust has to consider 24 government core standards, divided into 44 different parts. The trusts have to publicly declare how they have performed against each.

Although Hereford County Hospital could declare it believed it had fully complied with the Department of Health hygiene code introduced last year it could not, at the time, honestly say it was achieving year-on-year reductions in MRSA.

Because of this it was classed as not meeting the core standard.

In a statement this week Helen Blanchard, HHT's director of nursing, said staff throughout the hospital had worked hard to fight infections and were starting to see the results.

"The trust's ambition is to prevent all avoidable hospital acquired infections and our attention is now focussed on enhancing compliance with the necessary standards," she said.

"We will continue to ensure that awareness of infection prevention and control is high amongst staff, visitors and patients alike to ensure our ambition is achieved."

The DoH has asked all trusts to set their own targets for reducing infection and Hereford County Hospital hopes to achieve 20% next year.

Patient and Public Involvement Forum members carried out a spot inspection at Hereford County Hospital earlier this year and reported that they found it to be much cleaner than on previous visits.