By Caroline Ryan BBC News health reporter in Harrogate

Many nurses have to wash their uniforms at home

They set out how hospitals should tackle hospital infections at their annual meeting in Harrogate.

The Royal College of Nursing warned that poor NHS laundry facilities meant nurses could be carrying bacteria, including MRSA, on their uniforms.

It called for 24-hour cleaning teams and a confidential system for reporting staff who do not wash their hands.

10-point plan

The 10-point plan said nurses should be given enough uniforms to enable them to have a fresh outfit for each shift.

It's common sense that healthcare staff should have a separate uniform for each shift they work RCN General Secretary Beverley Malone

RCN sectretary Beverly Malone said 400,000 extra uniforms would be enough to give every nurse one new outfit.

A nurses's uniform costs, on average, between �12 and �20 - so another 400,000 uniforms would cost about �4.8m.

The RCN also called for matrons to have mandatory powers over cleanliness standards in wards, and for each hospital ward to be given ring-fenced "ward environment" budgets of �5,000.

Hospital-acquired infections, including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), are estimated to kill around 5,000 people each year in the UK.

Reducing the number of patients affected by "superbugs" has become one of the key health issues of the election campaign.

Contamination risk

A study published in Nursing Standard magazine showed only a quarter of trusts washed uniforms, meaning most nurses have to launder them at home, increasing the risk of contamination

Researchers surveyed 86 trusts in the UK.

Less than half - 47% - provided staff with enough uniforms to have a clean outfit for each shift, with 43% providing only three to four uniforms per nurse.

And 91% said staff had to wash their uniforms at home, although most were given inadequate instructions about how high a temperature was needed to kill any bacteria on the clothing.

Writing in Nursing Standard, researchers led by Kathryn Nye from the Health Protection Agency, said: "The potential for cross-contamination and spread of organisms such as MRSA within healthcare facilities, the homes of staff and the community is clear.

"Minimum standards for uniform provision, changing facilities and laundering need to be agreed and introduced nationally as a matter of urgency."

"One more uniform each"

RCN general secretary Beverley Malone said: "There has been a terrific amount of work to highlight the importance of hand-washing in combating MRSA."

But she added: "It's common sense that healthcare staff should have a separate uniform for each shift they work, but we know this often isn't the case and the implications for infection control are obvious.

"If the next government committed to providing just one extra uniform for each nurse working in the NHS today, they would need to provide 400,000 more uniforms.

"But extra uniforms are just the beginning. We also need to make sure that hospitals provide laundry and changing facilities so that staff know their uniforms have been washed at a high enough temperature and that they are not forced to travel to and from work in them.

"Some of our nurses report having to change in and out of their uniforms in ward toilets. This is completely unacceptable," she said.

Jean Lawrence, chairwoman of the Infection Control Nurses Association, said: "MRSA was 40 years in the making. It could take 40 years before it goes.

"Tomorrow we could see something different."