This is the photo taken by the News that captures Health Secretary John Reid in an embarrassing position causing a potential MRSA risk by sitting on a bed at St George's Hospital.

Mr Reid, who visited the hospital with Prime Minister Tony Blair last Tuesday, sat on the bed while he and the PM spoke to patient Robert Brown about his heart operation.

St George's has a reputation for leading the way when it comes to fighting the superbug and latest figures show cases of MRSA have been halved there in the past three years.

However, health campaigners have criticised Mr Reid's error as going against the good work carried out at the hospital.

Tony Field, chairman of pressure group MRSA Support, which helps patients and relatives affected by the superbug, said: "John Reid did not set a good example for the control of the spread of infection by sitting on a patient's bed.

"In his position as Secretary of Health he should have been more careful and stood up, or found a seat."

St George's insisted the incident did not compromise its high health standards. A spokesman said: "At worst this is a minor infringement of best practice. It's also a storm in a teacup.

"The figures are showing signs of good progress in the fight against the infection. We have better hand-washing among staff and more care is being taken in the use of intravenous lines among patients."

Since the superbug reared its ugly head at the hospital staff have been busy campaigning for better hand hygiene among doctors and nurses by encouraging frequent use of an alcoholic gel, which has been made available on every ward.

It also screens patients for MRSA when they are transferred from other hospitals and nursing homes and has appointed a specialist team of nurses to supervise the safe placing of intravenous lines.

Aodhan Breathnach, the hospital's infection doctor, said: "A third of the MRSA cases we treat here at St George's are patients who have caught the infection in another hospital or in the community.

"There is very little we can do to stop this happening, apart from screen the patients most at risk, treat them for infection and stop that infection spreading to other patients. This can only happen with the co-operation of patients and the general public."

According to a Government report, there were 54 cases of MRSA bloodstream infections at St George's between April and September 2001, which fell to 28 cases in the same six-month period in 2004.

Dr Breathnach added: "The figures are certainly encouraging. It's reassuring to see the campaign we mounted several years ago to curb the spread of infections and improve standards of hygiene is starting to pay off. However, no-one is in the mood for celebrating just yet."