An infection hit squad is to clear up wards in two Midland hospitals after Ministers admitted the NHS was failing to cut MRSA rates quickly enough.

The Department of Health announced it was despatching a specialist team to Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs City Hospital in Birmingham and Sand-well General Hospital in West Bromwich.

The latest MRSA figu res revealed the number of cases recorded by the trust had risen. But there was good news for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston, once named the dirtiest hospital in the country.

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The number of infections fell, and it was named one of the most improved hospitals by Ministers.

Health Minister Jane Kennedy admitted half England's hospitals were unlikely to meet the official target of cutting rates by 50 per cent by 2008.

Yesterday's figures, which cover the six months between April 2005 and September 2005, showed that Hereford County Hospital had the highest MRSA rate in the West Midlands. It recorded 13 cases.

This was the sixth highest infection rate in the country.

New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton recorded 35 cases.

And Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust recorded 53 cases, or 0.27 per 1,000 bed days.

John Adler, chief executive of Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "While our rates are not unusually high for a large acute Trust like ours, we are some way off the target set for us by the Department of Health.

"We have a robust programme in place including screening for MRSA, promotion of effective of hand hygiene practice and improving hospital cleanliness."

University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust recorded 47 cases.

Birmingham Women's Hospital in Edgbaston and the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Northfield recorded no cases.