CONSERVATIVE leader and Kent MP Michael Howard has pledged to scrap most health targets as part of drive to cut the number of people dying from the hospital ‘superbug,’ MRSA.

Mr Howard made his commitment during a keynote speech in Kent today in which he set out how a future Conservative government would end the crisis which is claiming 5,000 lives every year.

He also said “dirty” hospitals that did not come up to scratch could lose money as patients would be able to choose which hospitals they went to for their operations.

The MP for Folkestone and Hythe said existing Government targets were responsible for diverting attention away from how best to reduce the number of patients contracting and dying from MRSA.

“Nurses say the targets mean they often have little time to clean beds in between treating patients. They say the pressure to meet Government targets can mean that even when an infection control team recommends that hospitals close wards to control that infection, hospital chief executives sometimes refuse to do so,” he told an audience of party activists in Deal.

Mr Howard's speech came during a tour of several key marginal seats in the county during which he visited Gillingham's Medway Maritime Hospital.

Responding to the Government’s latest recommendation to ensure hospital staff cleaned their hands more regularly, he said it had come too late.

“It is important but it is hardly rocket science and why has it taken four years to come up with such a basic recommendation?”

He accused Labour of a piecemeal approach to the crisis and said there should be a national outcry at what he described as a “killer on the loose.”

“People go to hospital to be cured and they end up dead. The problem has been getting worse every year of this government but there has been only half-hearted action. That is intolerable,” he said.

He denied exaggerating the scale of the problem and insisted that while targets would be scrapped, hospitals would still be compelled to publish information about infection rates.