A HAMPSHIRE company claims to have developed a lifesaving weapon in the fight against the lethal MRSA superbug.

But bosses of Energy Technique Plc say no one in the NHS is interested, despite its potential to prevent heartache for families across the south.

They claim the innovative £6,000 ultraviolet light device will destroy the killer bug but NHS money-men have pleaded poverty, although their American counterparts snapped it up.

The superbug hit the headlines earlier this week when new government figures showed 300,000 cases last year, more than three times as many as initially feared.

As reported in the Daily Echo this week, the number of hospital-acquired MRSA infections at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust rose from 53 cases in 2002-03 to 62 in 2003-04 - up 17 per cent.

Experts calculate hospital infections kill up to 5,000 people each year in the UK with Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) a prime cause.

Called the NightingaleR Unit, the UV device passed tests at Basingstoke's North Hampshire Hospital.

The hospital's Ian De Bruin said: "The UVGI systems appear capable of dealing with many airborne pathogens on a regular or emergency basis, which is certainly important when dealing with patients with weakened or non-existent immune systems.

"The system is an easily serviceable piece of kit, and you don't need to do major intervention in the room with it being moveable."

Leigh Stimpson, group managing director of the former Southampton company which employs 120 people, is disappointed by the NHS response. He said: "It is very sad that this sophisticated equipment, which is on sale to the NHS, has gone first to North America.

"It is costing the NHS £1 billion a year to control MRSA, and instead of spending money on trying to prevent it in the first place, it is being used to try and deal with it after it has got into hospitals."

A Department of Health spokesman said it was up to trusts to decided if a product like this was suitable.