Quebec hospitals have been ordered to isolate patients who are infected with C. difficile. But according to some patients, that isn't always happening fast enough.

The Health Department in Quebec, where the bacterium has killed more than 200, has ordered hospitals to limit contact between patients.

But there have been reports that infected patients  are frequently mixed in rooms with uninfected patients.

Madeleine Gomes was admitted to the Montreal General hospital earlier this month with a collapsed lung. She was sharing a room with three others and says she wasn't told that one of them was infected with C. difficile.

"I hadn't a clue, hadn't a clue until I questioned the nurse," she told CTV News.

When she found out, she demanded to be switched to another room. She says it took two days.

The McGill University Health Centre says they are following strict isolation protocols and says infected patients are either kept in private rooms or with each other. MUHC Director of Nursing Ann Lynch says the process of transferring a patients takes hours, not two days, as Gomes claims.

Gomes says she is concerned for others.

"There is a shroud of secrecy. Yes, because I think patients who don't have the infection and are going in there innocently ought to know."

Hospitals have been told to thoroughly clean their establishments, and ensure that workers wash their hands. But Pierre Fontaine, a union official at a Montreal hospital, says efforts to stop the spread of the potentially fatal bacteria aren't working.

"In reality, what we do, is to bring bacteria from one room to another. And we do our best for the appearance, it seems to be clean, but in fact, we are not able to struggle against the bacteria," he says.

The Public Health Agency of Canada announced Thursday it would begin tracking the bacteria in 25 major teaching hospitals across Canada. Aggie Adamczyk, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the lack of reliable national data prompted the decision to track the spread of the often-deadly C. difficile, which causes severe diarrhea.

That announcement followed a Montreal study said C. difficile killed 109 people in Quebec over a six-month period this year. She also found the bacterium had contributed indirectly to another 108 deaths this year.

The study, written by Dr. Vivian Loo of the Montreal General Hospital, said C. difficile is now the most virulent bacteria in Canadian hospitals.

"It would rank No. 1 as a superbug,'' she told a news conference this week in which she revealed her findings.

"When you look at the number of deaths, this is a much higher, virulent organism compared to (others).''

Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard has described C. difficile as a "scourge'' and a "serious problem.''

He has also acknowledged the provincial government first became aware of the outbreak in April but did not announce a surveillance program until August.