Hospitals could be held criminally liable if hospitalized patients catch methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Britain’s new health secretary said yesterday, according to the London Telegraph:

Asked on ITV’s Jonathan Dimbleby programme if that meant hospitals could be held criminally liable if patients contracted bugs such as MRSA [Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt] said: “That’s what we are looking at.”

I assume prosecutors would have to prove negligence, but the Telegraph article doesn’t say anything about that. Over to you, Walter…