NHS leaders have told MPs that the success in reducing well known infections that are acquired in hospital will lead to a reduction in other infections. The parliamentary public accounts committee quizzed witnesses this week as part of its inquiry into the National Audit Office report on reducing healthcare associated infections in hospitals, which was published earlier this month.

The MPs asked what next for these infections after concerns in the report that other infections would become a greater problem than meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile.

The committee chairman, Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, congratulated the NHS chief executive, David Nicholson, on the …