Health managers will face the sack if they fail to clean up wards, under new laws to be announced today .

Every hospital in the country is to be forced to appoint a cleaning 'tsar' to fight the MRSA superbug, Ministers will pledge.

But the Government has backed away from controversial proposals to make hospital directors liable for criminal charges.

The latest initiative to beat infections followed a scathing TV documentary which exposed poor hygiene standards at a Birmingham hospital.

An undercover Panorama reporter discovered cleaners using just one bucket of water to clean a whole ward at Heartlands Hospital.

Dr Mark Goldman, the hospital's chief executive, has promised "action not words".

But Health Minister Jane Kennedy said there had been "serious breaches of standards" at Heartlands.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston, Birmingham, was also named as the hospital where patients have the highest chance of contracting MRSA, in recent Department of Health figures.

The new laws will oblige every hospital to appoint a director of infection prevention and control.

Hospital boards will also have to draw up infection control programmes, approved by the Healthcare Commission, a Government body.

If the programme is deemed to be insufficient, or is not followed, the Commission will have the power to order hospitals to make specific improvements.

And if they fail to comply, the Secretary of State for Health will have the power to sack whole boards, or individual members.

Mrs Kennedy said: "These are significant powers and there should be no misunderstanding that when we need to exercise them, we will."

But the Government has scrapped proposals to make board members liable for prosecution, she confirmed.

The Minister was forced to admit the new laws were partly a result of the failure of previous initiatives.

Hospitals have already been asked to sign up to voluntary policies designed to prevent infections.

In the Panorama programme, undercover reporter Shabnam Grewall spent two months working as a cleaner for Initial Hospital Services at Heartlands Hospital, in Bordesley.

She found some cleaners concentrated on making sure wards, isolation rooms and toilets were superficially clean rather than sticking to strict procedures aimed to help cut infections like MRSA.

Mrs Kennedy said: "Clearly there were serious breaches of the standards, but the hospital responded appropriately.

"I understand that the cleaning staff concerned, that were the focus of the report, have been dealt with appropriately."

The Minister said her own job was also on the line if hospitals were not cleaned up.

A spokeswoman for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital said it already employed a manager "at a senior level" in charge of infection control, but not at director level.

Heartlands Hospital said it appointed a director of infection prevention and control earlier this year.