A former barrister used the Freedom of Information Act to discover levels of MRSA on the hospital ward where he contracted the bug.

Ben Beaumont, 65, of Scrutton Close, Headington, Oxford, was working in Hong Kong when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2004.

His prostate was removed there and he returned to Oxford for a follow-up operation in April 2005. He then contracted MRSA on Ward 15 of the Churchill Hospital.

Mr Beaumont said: "I lived in Oxford during the 1980s and I thought the standard of care would be excellent, so I came back to Oxford to die."

He said the actual operation was successful, but that he later contracted MRSA.

"When I was told I had MRSA on top of everything else, I was terrified because some elderly people who get it do die from it," he said.

"At one point I thought I only had six months to live because of prostate cancer but, thankfully, I am now recovering."

He said after the all-clear, he asked the hospital for detailed MRSA figures for Ward 15.

But the hospital said it could not give specific information for each ward, so he then decided to use the Freedom of Information Act Mr Beaumont then received a letter from Kathy Topley, acting manager in the infection control service, which said that in 2003 and 2004, 50 cases of MRSA were identified on Ward 15. But three months later, Mr Beaumont was told by infection control specialist Dr Derrick Crook that Ward 15 was a "site of low MRSA activity".

Dr Crook wrote: "On a one-off analysis of our microbiology data, one case per year of MRSA bacteraemia over the last five years is the average occurrence of serious MRSA infection on Ward 15. This represents approximately two per cent of the MRSA bacteraemias at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals."

Mr Beaumont added: "The trust needs to come clean about the MRSA situation and give people the information they need as soon as they ask for it. My cancer care was first class but the last thing I needed afterwards was MRSA and I should not have been forced to use FOI to get the information I wanted."

Oliver Francis, a spokesman for Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "Swabs and blood samples are commonly taken from patients. The reference to 50 cases of MRSA over two years refers to all samples of MRSA isolated within the ward. These would consist mostly of colonisation, with a small number of wound infections and any bacteraemias. This does not represent an unusually high level of MRSA prevalence within a ward.

"A detailed letter was written to Mr Beamount by our lead clinician in infection control.

"This refers to the average of one case per year of MRSA bacteraemia - ie actual infections of the blood. The figures, therefore, relate to different phenomena. We regret if the presentation of this data has led to confusion."