WHEN my mother-in-law was taken in to Warrington Hospital on Friday night, she was panicking in case they kept her in.

Why? Because she's frightened to death of catching superbug infections such as Clostridium difficile or MRSA.

And I knew exactly what was going through her mind.

She'd had a nasty fall and was black and blue with her face swollen and her eye closed.

She's 76, so any sort of fall at her age is potentially dangerous.

But I knew that if they kept her in for observation she would be frightened.

We'd only been talking the night before about how many cases of C-diff there were at Warrington.

She knows at least one friend whose husband has died from it.

And, according to figures on a national newspaper website published today, there were 124 cases of C-diff in North Cheshire Hospitals (that's Warrington and Halton) from January to March this year and three of MRSA.

At least 90 patients in Kent have died from C-diff caused by filthy hospital conditions.

And the problem is going to get out of control unless we do something about our dirty hospitals.

When my son was in hospital earlier this year, I noticed that the floor underneath his bed was dusty and spotted a clump of hair and dirt.

It was still there four days later when he was eventually discharged.

Fortunately, he is young and fit.

But general standards have gone down.

Gone are the smart nurses in starched uniforms - they're more likely to be wearing scrubs and trainers.

Patients too are allowed to wander.

Why are they allowed downstairs to the shop and cafe?

Surely this spreads infection when they then come back up to the wards?

If they're well enough to be socialising downstairs, aren't they well enough to be discharged?

What we need are some Hattie Jacques-style old-fashioned matrons - they would soon whip things into shape and deliver the standard of care that patients and the public rightly expects.