The country's chief nursing officer, whose job is to clean up hospitals and fight the MRSA superbug, said in a visit

to Bradford that more resources were being put into cleaning wards.

Christine Beasley was in the city on Thursday to speak at a conference on fighting healthcare associated infections.

As the largest health union, Unison, called for more cleaners back on hospital wards,

Mrs Beasley said there was no doubt the numbers of cleaners had fallen.

And she said the Government was making sure the right resources were being put into cleaning hospital wards.

She refuted Unison's claim from a recent report linking cost-cutting and contracting out hospital cleaning with a fall in cleaning standards, leading to an increase in infections.

Mrs Beasley said: "There is not overwhelming evidence that contracting is bad and in-house is good. The real issues are about cleaners being part of a ward team and feeling part of a ward team and there is an issue about making sure there are enough resources in cleaning.

"We have to make sure our clinical areas are clean."

The conference, Cleaner, Better Care in West Yorkshire at Bradford's Cedar Court Hotel, brought together healthcare professionals from across

the county to showcase health trusts' efforts to combat

MRSA and to listen to patients' experiences.

The Government aims to slash the number of healthcare associated infections in half by 2008.

Mrs Beasley said: "It was a real opportunity to bring together all sorts of people and patients from across West Yorkshire to share what

everyone is doing around healthcare associated infections and cleanliness.

"We know a lot about what needs to be done. Patients quite rightly expect areas to be clean. It's important staff wash their hands. We are also collecting data about bloodborne infection MRSA."

The conference was organ-ised by West Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority and

West Yorkshire Workforce Development Confederation in conjunction with a task force

of all Trusts across West Yorkshire.

Statistics for Bradford Hospitals NHS Teaching Trust show that in the year to March 2004, there were 44 cases of the MRSA superbug, and Airedale NHS Trust saw 20 cases.

In November, Airedale Hospital became the first UK hospital to introduce special dusters for cleaners, replacing wet mops and buckets, saying the new cloths removed 99 per cent of bacteria.