HUDDERSFIELD hospital staff will be rolling up their sleeves to carry out a “deep clean” as part of a £50m Government plan to combat infections.

Hospitals across Yorkshire are being invited to bid for a share of £5m under a nationwide scheme to blitz the NHS.

Health bosses will come up with detailed cleaning plans to show how they will spend the cash as part of their bids. They will then have until March next year to do the work.

Mark Partington, director of operations for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We welcome the added resources which will support the delivery of our infection control plan.

“At the moment we are developing a plan with our domestic services manager, infection control and clinical teams.

“After that we will be discussing plans with our primary care partners before the bid is submitted to the strategic health authority.”

The move is one of the Government’s measures to help hospitals tackle superbugs and improve patient safety.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said: “Undertaking a deep clean is a key part of our strategy to improve cleanliness and ensure patients have confidence that their hospitals are safe.

“Strategic health authorities have now allocated funding so that hospitals can get on with the deep clean programme this winter with the aim of completing all deep cleans by the end of March.

“People want an NHS that is clean and safe; the deep clean programme will help to reassure patients and build public confidence in the NHS.”

The announcement comes as the results of the latest Patient Environment and Action Team inspection were published by the National Patient Safety Agency.

The inspections measure patient satisfaction within a range of areas including food and aspects of privacy and dignity, as well as cleanliness and the patient environment.

The figures show that in 2007 98% of hospitals were rated as excellent, good or acceptable, up from 95% in 2006.

Mr Johnson said: “I am pleased that hospitals have made progress. Only a handful of hospitals were rated poor or unacceptable for the patient environment.’’