Babies born at Watford General Hospital were exposed to the killer MRSA superbug, a report has revealed.

According to hospital board papers, five newborns at the hospital’s Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) were found to have the bug on their skin during routine testing in November and December 2007.

A full investigation was carried out and the bug traced back to a member of staff who later received treatment.

The episode was detailed in the West Hertfordshire Hospital Trust’s annual infection control report between April 2007 and March 2008.

The document shows a total of 21 cases of MRSA at Watford General – mostly contracted in its A&E department – and explains that more than 400 cases of Clostridium Difficile (C.dif) were treated by the trust as a whole.

A trust spokeswoman said: “No babies were clinically infected or had any symptoms of infection.

As a matter of course routine surveillance screening for MRSA is carried out in the ward and identified these cases.

“We immediately put in place our infection control measures and treated the babies concerned.”

Belinda Phipps, chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust, explained that MRSA is much more likely to find a home in the SCBU because of the increased number of antibiotics used.

The number of babies referred to it, she added, is well above the national average and needs to be reduced.

She said: “If you look at figures from the Health Care Commission, Watford sends nearly twice as many babies to their SCBU than other hospitals.

“Staff should be moving heaven and earth to make sure they don’t need to be sent there.

“It should be reserved for the very sickest babies.”

The report also detailed the efforts made by the trust to improve hygiene and infection control procedures, including a strict regime of cleaning, screening, hand washing and the reduction in the use of certain types of antibiotics.

Supplementary figures for the first quarter of this year suggest a marked improvement, with a more than 50 per cent decline in MRSA and a fall in C.dif from 212 to 26.

The trust spokeswoman added: “We take infection control extremely seriously and staff work tirelessly to reduce the cases of infection in the trust. Over the past year the trust has prioritised action to combat MRSA and C.dif.”