Kingston Hospital had a thing or two to teach Gordon Brown on Saturday, as he chose it for his first lesson in how to improve the National Health Service.

The new Prime Minister and Alan Johnson, on his first visit as Health Secretary, were keen to learn how the hospital has targeted curtailing the spread of the MRSA superbug. They also declared the visit as the start of a drive to listen to the views of patients and healthcare staff.

Mr Johnson said: "There's a lot of really good morale. But there's been a lot of change in a short period and people wanted to explain to us what that meant in terms of nurses, matrons, ancillary workers, doctors and people in the front line."

New junior health minister, Professor Lord Ara Darzi was also there. He is developing a London health strategy which is due to be published later this year.

Mr Johnson made a film of his visit, which is now on the website youtube.com. In it he describes Kingston Hospital as an ideal location to start his stint as health secretary.

He said: "This has been a great experience for us. It's the start of a very long learning curve for me. But I don't think I could have started the learning curve at a better place than Kingston Hospital."

On their brief tour, the trio visited Canbury ward, an orthopaedic ward, and met a number of people, including Dr Charles Alessi of Churchill Medical Centre in Clifton Road.

Dr Alessi said: "It was quite a short exchange. We talked about improving the quality of primary care and ensuring that primary and secondary care work well together. I found Mr Brown to be very interested and well informed."