EAST Lancashire's hospitals are meeting government hygiene targets, bosses said.

More than one in four UK hospitals failed to reach all the government's cleanliness standards over the last year.

But health chiefs at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said they were winning the fight against superbugs.

East Lancashire Primary Care Trust and Blackburn with Darwen Primary Care Trust, which runs local non-hospital healthcare, were also declared fully compliant with the hygiene standards.

Infection control schemes in place across East Lanca-shire have helped reduce incidences of healthcare-related superbugs like MRSA and Clostridium Difficile.

But they are also used to detect the origins of other, less serious illnesses that have spread through wards.

Hospitals and health centres have to meet minimum requirements on decontamination of equip-ment, hand hygiene and cleanliness and upkeep of buildings.

Senior infection control nurse Kathy Bonner said every department in East Lancashire's hospitals and PCTs filled in daily checklists on hygiene, and were given an unannounced audit each month. Any outbreak of illness is fully investigated to find its source.

She said: "Every member of staff takes mandatory hygiene training, and the protocols are strictly followed throughout the hospitals, clinics and health centres.

"We monitor things very closely and take an active role in the North West's infection control team, so that when we find something that works well, or even if things go wrong we can share our experiences with other trusts and learn from one another."

Rineke Schram, medical director (governance and education) for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "Ward staff do a tremendous job monitoring hygiene standards and the numbers of MRSA and C Difficile cases continue to be low. We take a zero tolerance approach to healthcare-acquired infections and give hygiene a top priority."