THE family of a pensioner with MRSA have been left in the dark about where she contracted the infection.

Seventy-eight-year-old Audrey Vant was transferred to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon from the Nevill Hall Hospital in south Wales after suffering a fall while on holiday.

But neither hospital has shed any light on how Mrs Vant caught the superbug.

Doctors at the GWH diagnosed Mrs Vant with MRSA on Monday - four days after she was admitted.

But Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust, which runs the GWH, has denied responsibility, stating that clinical tests show the grandmother had the infection prior to her arrival.

There is also the possibility that Mrs Vant contracted MRSA in the Nevill Hall hospital in Abergavenny, or on the ambulance journey to Swindon.

But Mrs Vant's daughter Yvonne Jepson has questioned why her mum was left in a ward for four days with MRSA before being isolated.

"Why didn't they isolate her straight away if she had MRSA when she was admitted?" she said.

"My mum was admitted to hospital to get better, not to catch something else," she said.

She is frustrated as neither hospital informed the family how her mum got MRSA.

Grandmother Audrey, from Toothill, is now in an isolated ward.

She was removed from the four-bedroom ward at noon on Monday after it was found she had the hospital superbug.

She came by ambulance to the GWH from the Nevill Hall Hospital after injuring herself on holiday.

GWH spokesman Chris Birdsall said: "First and foremost due to rules on patient confidentiality we can't discuss individual patients.

"However, we can confirm in this case a routine MRSA scan showed the patient was admitted with MRSA."

He said the reason Mrs Vant wasn't immediately removed from the communal ward was that the results had not come back.

The Nevill Hall hospital has said it could not confirm where Mrs Vant contracted the bug.

A spokesman said: "Due to patient confidentiality we cannot give details about the swabs taken for MRSA from this patient.

"It is difficult to be exact about when MRSA appears when there is a time lapse between swabs being taken."

Mrs Jepson believes her mum has had a lucky escape as her stitches have been removed and she is physically strong.

Mr Birdsall says the GWH, which has had seven cases of MRSA this year, takes every precaution to prevent it.

"The trust takes hygiene and infection control extremely seriously," he said.

"We have a rigorous hand-washing policy with alcohol gel dispersed throughout the trust."