A leaked Department of Health memo has predicted the target to halve MRSA rates by 2008 is likely to be missed.
This does not come as a surprise to victims of the superbug.
Tony Kitchen was working in a warehouse when he fell off a forklift truck and broke his ankle in 2000.
The break was bad with the bone puncturing the skin, so he was transferred from his local hospital in Scunthorpe to one in Hull that could carry out specialist micro-surgery.
After a few weeks, he was still in hospital and had lost four-and-a-half stone.
Mr Kitchen, 59, said: "People started to get worried and I had some swabs taken and MRSA was diagnosed. I thought I was going to die.
"I was so weak, and my ankle was not healing properly. But I think they got there just in time. They gave me some antibiotics and the MRSA cleared up."
But despite attempts to heal Mr Kitchen's ankle using muscle from different parts of his body, doctors eventually had to amputate just below the knee.
"It was my only option in the end, but it has meant that I have never been able to work since," he said.
"I was in hospital for seven weeks in the end. I only had a broken ankle, but ended up a cripple.
"I had nine months of rehabilitation, but it took years to get over the mental side of it. I started taking it out on my wife.
"One thing people don't realise is that the whole family suffers when something like this happens."
Mr Kitchen said he was not surprised that the government was unlikely to meet its target.
"I just don't think it is enough of a priority. They say they want to sort it out, but hospitals are still dirty and simple measures, such as using face masks are still not being done."