Infection rates at Epsom and St Helier Hospital have been described as "extremely worrying" after the hospital had the second highest rate of MRSA infection in London.

The latest Health Protection Agency (HPA) figures show that 19 cases of MRSA were found between July and September last year - the second highest rate in London.

The hospital also had London's third highest rate of Clostrium difficile in that quarter, with 122 cases of it being detected in patients over 65.

In November the Sutton Council's health and wellbeing scrutiny committee ordered an investigation into infection rates at the hospital but its members say they still have not received a satisfactory response.

"We strongly believe it will be possible to get rates down but it will take more effort by the hospital to get this done. We are still waiting for answers to our questions about hazard assessment and control. The situation is extremely worrying," said the committee's chair Councillor Stuart Gordon-Bullock.

A spokesman for the hospital trust said infection rates had fallen since the last HPA count.

"Our reported MRSA bacteraemia figures for the last quarter of 2007 (October to December) dropped to eight. Furthermore, the number of cases of Clostridium difficile has been cut drastically, from more than 60 in July last year, to less than 20 in December," he said.

He said measures the hospital had taken - such as a deep clean, recruiting staff to the infection control team and extending the MRSA screening programme - could be attributed to the reduction.

"It is also important to note that MRSA is not just a problem in hospitals, and that many of the patients who are diagnosed with it in hospital have brought it in with them from the local community," he added.

Representatives from the hospital are due back in front of the council's health scrutiny committee in March.