Every hospital in Britain is to undergo a ward-by-ward 'deep clean' within the next year to rid them of fatal superbugs such as MRSA, Gordon Brown announced last night.

In his first policy initiative ahead of the Labour conference, which opens in Bournemouth today, the Prime Minister pledged that walls, ceilings and ventilation shafts in hospitals across the country would be scrubbed clean.

'We know that, over time, ingrained cleanliness problems build up, especially in hard-to-reach places like ceilings and ventilation ducts, which cannot be dealt with by day-to-day cleaning,' Brown writes in today's News of the World

'So over the next year, for the first time, every hospital will receive a 'deep clean' designed to return our hospitals to the state they were in when they were built. A ward at a time, walls, ceilings, fittings and ventilation shafts will be disinfected and scrubbed clean.'

The initiative, which was drawn up by the new Health Minister Lord Darzi, is based on the experience of the US, where 'deep cleans' are regularly carried out. NHS trusts will decide how to carry out the cleaning, which could lead to wards being closed for a week at a time.

There were 1,444 cases of MRSA bloodstream infections in the first three months of this year, according to the latest infection figures from the Health Protection Agency. This compared with 1,542 in the previous quarter.

Brown, who has seen Labour overturn the Tories' lead on health, will have had one eye on the Conservatives when he drew up the new anti-superbug initiative. The Tories' manifesto for the last election, which was written by David Cameron, pledged that a Conservative government would make cleaner hospitals one of its top five priorities.

The Prime Minister also announces today an extension of breast screening and early treatment for cancer for women. The waiting time for women to receive the results of cervical screening tests will be cut from six weeks or more to a maximum of 14 days.

An extra 200,000 women will be eligible for routine screening for breast cancer by extending the age range from 47 to 73, the Prime Minister tells the Sunday Times. At the moment only women aged between 50 and 70 are eligible for routine screening.

The raft of new policies will heighten speculation that Brown is preparing for an autumn election. Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, makes clear today that Labour will not concede law and order to the Tories by pledging to issue the first guidelines on safe alcohol consumption for the under-18s. Shops and off licences which sell alcohol to teenagers will also face a crackdown.

'Currently we don't have any guidance for parents on alcohol consumption and its impact on under-18s. That worries me,' Balls told the Sunday Telegraph.

'When I was 16 or 17, I would have a small glass of wine at lunch on a Sunday or a shandy or a Babycham at Christmas. That's not where the problem lies. It's where parents are allowing kids to consume substantial quantities of alcohol. We need to help parents get the balance right and put behind us the excessive drinking culture.'