C. Difficile on the march.

The government likes to say that it has got MRSA under control, and indeed the number of MRSA related deaths has gone down slightly since last year.

Unfortunately, it seems that clostridium difficile infections are rising rapidly, having doubled in two years.

We go to our hospitals to be healed, but it seems that in the modern health service we run the risk of contracting unpleasant and potentially fatal infections while we are there.

The first principle of medicine must surely be to first do no harm, but the conditions our hospitals have to operate under to meat the governments beloved targets mean that frequently they are doing harm.

Before dictating how many ingrowing toe-nails must be treated each week, the department of health should concentrate on ensuring that those who go in to hospital do not come out more ill than when they started.