A RECORD number of pensioners have been diagnosed with the bug Clostridium Difficile in Scotland, a report revealed yesterday.

Figures showed there were 1861 cases of C Diff among the over-65s between January and March this year - a 16% increase from 1608 in the last three months of 2007. Health professionals said the rise could be linked to the changing seasons but warned as rates have been monitored for less than two years, it is too early to draw definite conclusions.

The release of the figures follows an outbreak of C Diff at the Vale of Leven Hospital in Alexandria, west Dunbartonshire, which infected more than 50 and was the main cause of death in nine people.

Labour health spokeswoman Margaret Curran said the "worrying new figures" should be examined as part of a government investigation into the Vale of Leven outbreak.

Data on the hospital superbug MRSA was also issued yesterday and the latest audit of hand hygiene practices in Scotland's hospitals. Cases of MRSA in Scotland have fallen to the lowest number since surveillance began and compliance with handwashing standards has increased from 68% last February to 88%, just shy of the 90% target.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon revealed she had pressed health boards to ensure their systems for tackling hospital infections are watertight.

She said: "Scotland has one of the most comprehensive sets of policies and procedures to manage healthcare associated infection (HAI) in Europe. However, recent events at the Vale of Leven show how vital it is for boards to ensure that these policies and procedures are applied to a high standard. Indeed, I challenged NHS board chairs at my meeting with them on Monday to ensure that this is the case and I intend to raise the issue with every board during this summer's annual reviews."

Although the new C Diff figures include cases at the Vale, this outbreak does not account for the overall rise in pensioners contracting the bug. The number of cases in January to March this year is up 4.8% nationwide on the same period last year, when 1775 were logged.

Not all the patients in this year's statistics had picked up the illness in hospital - 26% had not been admitted to a ward in the 12 weeks before they fell ill.

Dr Anne Eastaway, consultant microbiologist and the leader of Scotland's C Diff surveillance programme, said: "We are starting to get a real sense of what is going on now and we need to start really driving at getting these numbers down.

"We had already been taking action with the service before the Vale of Leven was known about and we are re-doubling our efforts."

By focusing on hospital departments where patients were most at risk from MRSA, Dr Eastaway said health boards had managed to reduce infections caused by this superbug.

She added: "They have been doing things such as targeting the management and care of the lines you put in people's arms and the lines you have in people in intensive care. By improving the care and management of these you can significantly reduce the risk of developing infection in quite a large number of patients."

Theresa Fyffe, director of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland, said the latest hand hygiene report shows nurses have the highest level of compliance with the rules compared to other staff.

She said: "Overall, nurses have now exceeded the target of 90% compliance set last November.

"However, hand hygiene is only one way of cutting HAIs and we must not be complacent. The recent outbreak of Clostridium Difficile in Vale of Leven, with tragic consequences, demonstrates that we must all work together and that policies and procedures must be improved if we are to minimise the risks posed to patients and staff by HAIs."