Spot checks to identify unhygienic hospitals

An unprecedented crackdown on dirty hospitals is being launched by the Government's health care inspectorate. The Healthcare Commission said it would carry out spot checks at 120 NHS trusts over the next year in its biggest ever programme of visits aimed at cutting rates of infection with the deadly superbugs MRSA and Clostridium difficile. Official figures published six weeks ago show Clostridium difficile causes 4,000 deaths a year and is still spreading despite all attempts to curb it. The bug causes severe diarrhoea which can lead to inflammation of the bowel, gas gangrene and death.

At last, hospitals are going to get the same treatment that every restaurant, cafe and kebab shop in the country has had to accept for decades - snap, unannounced hygiene inspections.

The one big difference is that, however awful that kebab might be, thousands aren't dying because of lax cleaning at your local 'greasy spoon'.