Scottish Labour's Jackie Baillie has called on ministers to create a National Reference Laboratory to help track cases of winter vomiting sickness. She was speaking after new figures revealed that the number of cases has doubled in the last month.

The Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon confirmed in response to a Parliamentary Question that there were 532 confirmed cases of norovirus in Scotland at the end of December. This compared with 288 in the previous four-week reporting period.

According to Health Protection Scotland, 40 hospital wards are closed as a result of the bug. The worst hit areas are:

1. Greater Glasgow and Clyde 13 wards closed
2. Ayrshire and Arran 9 wards closed
3. Lothian 8 wards closed
4. Grampian 3 wards closed

Shadow Health Secretary Jackie Baillie said, "I am very concerned that the number of cases of norovirus may not have peaked and this could be the worst winter we have seen for some time. I want the Scottish Government to start taking hospital infections much more seriously.

"That's why I am calling on ministers to create a National Reference Laboratory that will help us keep track of the bug. We also need a much more robust, mandatory reporting system for winter vomiting sickness.

"The NHS has already been under pressure in recent weeks because of the bad weather and ward closures are the last thing we need. A more proactive stance on fighting infection is in everybody's interests."

Professor Hugh Pennington said, "The Scottish Government are again running behind England. There is real complacency here in view of the disruptive effect of ward closures caused by this bug and staff absence through illness.

"There is also a growing realization that norovirus can be fatal for those with underlying health problems and the conditions that allow this bug to flourish also leave us exposed to other infections, such as C. difficile.

"A National Reference Laboratory would help us to follow the appearance and evolution of new strains and perhaps enable us to explain why the virus has become so common in hospitals."