A record number of NHS hospital patients are contracting the deadly Clostridium difficile superbug – thousands in the West Midlands alone – new figures show.

Some 55,861 cases were reported among over 65s in the country in 2006 – up eight per cent on the previous year – according to data from the Health Protection Agency.

It described the rate as “very high”, while the Patients Association called for more to be done to tackle hospital superbugs.

Black Country trusts recorded a staggering 1,740 cases last year.

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A record number of NHS hospital patients are contracting the deadly Clostridium difficile superbug – thousands in the West Midlands alone – new figures show.

Some 55,861 cases were reported among over 65s in the country in 2006 – up eight per cent on the previous year – according to data from the Health Protection Agency.

It described the rate as “very high”, while the Patients Association called for more to be done to tackle hospital superbugs.

Black Country trusts recorded a staggering 1,740 cases last year.

Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust had 482 cases, Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust had 433, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust had 419 and The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, 406.

Some 422 Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Trust patients contracted the superbug, while 594 cases were noted by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust recorded 342 cases last year.

C. diff causes diarrhoea, ranging from mild cases to severe illness and can be fatal.

Elderly patients treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics are at greatest risk. Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern, said: “Older people are at risk not only because they occupy two thirds of hospital beds but also because they are some of the most vulnerable hospital patients.

“We know this is a major concern for older people and their families when they go into hospital.

“It is clear that not all hospitals are doing enough to stop the spread of C. difficile and therefore patients’ lives are being put at risk.”

Katherine Murphy, spokeswoman for the Patients Association, called for all patients to be screened.

Currently, only those considered to be at a high risk are routinely tested as they enter a hospital. She said: “Too many people are dying from these infections.

“We need to make NHS chief executives more accountable and ring-fence infection control budgets as it is too easy to raid them when there are cuts,” she added.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said staff cuts and ward closures – which had forced bed occupancy rates up to “dangerously high levels” – to reduce the NHS budget deficit, were to blame.

He said: “These figures are just the tip of the iceberg, because they do not even include the huge number of infections in people aged under 65.

“The Government has badly let down NHS staff and the patients they care for,” he added.