All non-emergency patients at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre will now be screened for MRSA before they go into hospital for an operation.

For a number of years the hospitals had carried out MRSA screening on patients regarded as having a high risk of contracting the bacteria.

However this has been extended to all elective operations and procedures which means that during an appointment with an outpatient nurse, patients will have a swab taken.

This involves rubbing a cotton bud in the nose and on any area of broken skin.

The majority of patients will also be offered a skin cleanser for them to wash with the night before and the morning of surgery.

Patients who are found to be carrying MRSA will continue with this wash and a nasal cream for five days.

The hospital said the screening programme was the latest action in concerted efforts to reduce infection, and provides reassurance to patients that there continues to be a low risk of infection at the hospitals.

The NOC ranks among the top ten specialist hospitals in the country for the lowest MRSA infection rates.