Patients pack superbug ward

Only one free bed is left in a new isolation unit for Walsall patients struck down with the potentially deadly superbug C Diff - just two weeks after it opened.

The bug, which mainly affects elderly people over 65 receiving antibiotics for other illnesses, is described by hospital bosses as three times more deadly than MRSA.

The highly-contagious infection, which causes severe diarrhoea, can be contracted in the community or in hospital with the number of cases rising rapidly since the NHS ordered trusts to record the number of patients affected by the illness in 2004.Last year, Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust said there had been 321 cases of C Diff in the 12-month period up to July, compared to 213 cases in 2005 and 176 during 2004 when figures were first recorded.

Before the new 22-bed ward was opened at Walsall Manor on December 28, patients with C Diff had to be treated in separate bays or private rooms.

Trust spokesperson, Sarah Faulkner, said: "If new patients are brought in who are required to go on to this facility, and we have no empty beds, the patients would be nursed in a side room in isolation."