The number of patients contracting Clostridium Difficile in their homes in Waveney and Yarmouth is nearly three times higher than the local health trust's target.

The number of patients contracting Clostridium Difficile in their homes in Waveney and Yarmouth is nearly three times higher than the local health trust's target.

In April, Yarmouth and Waveney Primary Care Trust (PCT) reported one case of MRSA against a target for the new financial year of 11 cases.

Alistair Lipp, the trust's director of public health, told the PCT's board yesterday that there had been seven cases of Clostridium Difficile (C Diff) at the James Paget University Hospital in April, which is within the target of eight cases a month.

But he added that the target of five cases of C Diff in the community - either in community hospitals or patients at home - had been broken, with 13 cases being reported.

He said: “Those cases were found in patients at home and not in our community hospitals. There is always an upsurge of diarrhoea at this time of year and some of those cases may have shown up in tests as having traces of C Diff although the illness might have been caused by something else.”