THE daughter of an elderly woman has criticised doctors for giving her mother the all-clear from the superbug C. diff - when the next day her GP

THE daughter of an elderly woman has criticised doctors for giving her mother the all-clear from the superbug C. diff - when the next day her GP diagnosed that she was suffering from the disease.Jackie Ossanlow says she now wants to see improved standards of care for elderly people at Weston General Hospital following the plight of her 82-year-old mother Betty Jones.But bosses at the Grange Road hospital say the number of patients contracting Clostridium Difficile has fallen by a quarter this year because of new infection controls.Jackie, of Palmer Street, Weston, took her elderly mother to the hospital in October last year suffering from pneumonia. The 54-year-old said: "I am sure my mum contracted C. diff when she went into hospital. Since that initial stay she has been in and out of hospital on at least eight occasions."Each time she went into hospital and was diagnosed with C. diff the staff would just give her some antibiotics and send her home."The problem was that as soon as mum had been off the antibiotics for a few days the infection would return."Jackie said the situation finally came to a head when, on September 28 this year, doctors told her to take her mother home after a brief hospital stay.Jackie said: "I couldn't believe it when they said she could leave. She was obviously still very ill and was still showing the symptoms of C. diff, even though a test had come back negative. "I still refused to take her home, so they put her on an eight bed ward all by herself over the weekend."Jackie eventually took Betty home the following Monday, but made an appointment for her mum to see her GP the next day.Betty was tested for the infection and the results revealed she did have C. diff.Jackie said: "My mum felt like she was being bullied into going home when she was still very ill. It seems like the hospital doesn't care about its elderly patients."A statement from Weston General Hospital said that, while it was not allowed to comment on individual patients, staff are doing their best to combat hospital infections such as C. diff. The statement added that this is being done through steam cleaning wards and beds, and also being extra vigilant in maintaining high standards of cleanliness.