SIR George Young has told the House Commons of an Andover firm's success in fighting MRSA - but its frustration in getting its bio-decontamination method adopted in this country.

During a House of Commons MRSA debate last week Sir George highlighted the success Bioquell has had in tackling superbugs abroad.

The US Government selected the Walworth Industrial Estate based firm for priority research into anthrax decontamination, it secured contracts to bio-decontaminate three hospitals in Singapore during the SARs outbreak and was awarded a contract to sterilise two intensive care units at a hospital in France.

However, progress in the UK has been much slower.

Sir George told the house that last December the Chief Medical Officer published a report saying the department would set up a rapid review process to access new procedures and products.

He said: "However, that rapid review process was certainly not rapid."

Sir George wrote to the Chief Medical Officer for a meeting to follow up the results obtained by a research team led by Professor Gary French, who's research shows that St Thomas' Hospital is heavily contaminated with MRSA.

In areas of the hospital where MRSA patients had been treated, 74 per cent of swabs still tested positive for MRSA.

Sir George told the house in a so-called non-MRSA ward, 43 per cent, of the bed frames were positive for MRSA.

Professor French's research showed that conventional cleaning does not work.

In one experiment, 90 per cent of 124 swabs were positive for MRSA before cleaning, but after cleaning the MRSA level only dropped to 66 per cent.

In another experiment the research found that 74 per cent of swabs were positive for MRSA but use of Bioquell's bio-decontamination equipment reduced the level to just one per cent.

Two months after Sir George wrote the letter to the Chief Medical Officer he rece-ived a reply that simply referred him to the rapid review process.

Bioquell received a letter in May to say it is taking longer than anticipated to establish the rapid review process and that it's hoped to start evaluations before the end of the year.

Sir George said: "There is ground-breaking research in this country into superbug eradication, but the first hospital to put it in to practice is in Paris."

He added: "The Government are in danger of misleading themselves if they believe that improved cleaning alone will combat MRSA and the superbug it will not."