The two hospitals which serve the borough are failing to tackle the problem of superbugs it was claimed this week, following new figures released by an independent health watchdog.

Statistics released by the Health Protection Agency showed that cases of Clostridium (C.) difficile at Kingston Hospital increased by 60 per cent in a year, while West Middlesex Hospital saw a six per cent rise.

Cases at Kingston Hospital were up from 227 in 2004 to 363 in 2005, while West Mid saw reports rise from 201 to 212 in the same period.

C. difficile are bacteria found in the gut of some people, but do not cause problems in healthy people with a normal mix of gut bacteria. Patients who have been treated with certain antibiotics can suffer from a disturbance of gut bacteria, sometimes resulting in diarrhoea.

Tony Arbour, Conservative London Assembly member for South West London said: "These figures are a shocking indictment of the careless attitude that pervades the people responsible for running our local hospitals."

A spokesman for West Mid said: "Published data on the incidence of C. difficile during 2005 across the NHS indicates that West Middlesex Hospital had a similar number of cases to comparable acute hospitals with a rate of 2.8 cases per 1,000 bed days. We take the infection extremely seriously as part of our work in infection control and current data shows that the rate of C. difficile at the hospital is falling."

She added that they operate strict infection control and cleaning methods in a bid to beat the bugs, in addition to a policy which controls the use of antibiotics.

A spokesman for Kingston Hospital NHS Trust said: "We are pleased our MRSA rates have shown an improvement and we are continuing to work with the Department of Health's improvement team to reduce these even further. We are disappointed our Clostridium difficile rates have increased and the factors contributing to this are increased testing, better reporting and a real increase in the number of cases.

"We provide a lab facility for screening all patients in the community for C. difficile, this includes Surbiton and Tolworth hospitals, so our figures will include this.

"We have also signed up to the Government's Saving Lives, a package of best practice measures to combat healthcare associated infections."