Scotland’s health protection quango was last night still refusing to divulge the name of the health board where three elderly patients died after contracting a new strain of Clostridium difficile.
There was also confusion between Health Protection Scotland (HPS) and the Scottish government over how many deaths it takes before the location of where they occurred is put into the public domain.
The three patients are the first worldwide to have been killed by the new strain, named ribotype 332.
The first two cases were recorded at the same hospital in December last year and January this year. The third