Gordon Brown's plan to "deep clean" our Hospitals has come under attack from both NHS managers and cleaning companies.  £50m has been set aside to deep clean 1,500 hospitals in England, and they have until the end of March to complete the programme.

Andrew Large, the director general of the Cleaning and Support Services Association said:

"What we have seen over the last few years is hospitals squeezing the cleaning budgets.  "When they are up for renegotiation we are being offered less and being told to clean things less frequently.  "For example, where we would perhaps have cleaned the tiles every week, it may be every two weeks from then on. "It sounds like only a little thing, but when it is applied to everything it makes a difference. If this had not happened I think infection rates would be lower.  "So it now seems strange to us that we are being given contracts to carry out these deep cleans.  "You have to wonder, if the cleaning budgets had not been cut would this be necessary? There is disruption to patients as wards have to be emptied.  "In my view, it would be a better use of money - and I think our members would prefer it - if the day-to-day cleaning was funded properly."

Nigel Edwards, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said:

"We would like policy to be based on evidence and we have picked up a degree of scepticism from a number of our members about this.  "We would not want to see relatively new hospitals being deep cleaned; it would be a waste of money."