East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Conquest Hospital and Eastbourne DGH, was among the two-thirds of hospital organisations in England which missed the goverment's goal to cut cases by half in the last four years, according to the LibDems.

It was also one of 14 per cent of trusts across the country whose rate of MRSA cases per 1,000 bed days rose from 1.69 to 1.70. The national average MRSA rate was 1.16.

But reported cases of MRSA did drop from 60 in 2003-04 to 53 in 2007-08 within the trust.

A trust spokesman said: "We are currently meeting our MRSA reduction target. For the first quarter of 2008/9 (April, May and June) we have had five cases of MRSA bacteraemia across the trust against a reduction target of six."

Tina Lloyd, the trust's lead infection control nurse, said: "Infection control and patient safety is a priority for this trust.

"A number of new measures have been introduced including the introduction of a specialist intravenous team, regular monitoring of hand hygiene, patient empowerment posters at the bedside to encourage patients to challenge doctors and nurses about their hand hygiene and the appointment of a new antibiotic pharmacist who specialises in the treatment of infection.

"Every case of a MRSA bacteraemia is fully investigated by clinical teams to identify the cause of the infection and areas for improvement."