Kiama SES volunteer Paul Sterry was in hospital in June to have an operation on an infected heel.

Mr Sterry said swab tests had shown the original infection was not MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) or VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococcus), but he had since tested positive for both the potentially fatal germs.

"I went in there on June 5 and was back in there seven days later as the infection was still there," Mr Sterry said.

"I was advised from swabs taken that I had contracted MRSA and they started treating me with intravenous antibiotics.

"Three weeks before I left I was told that I had positive VRE."

He was discharged from hospital last Tuesday.

The revelation followed a leaked internal memo showing patients were more likely to pick up golden staph at Wollongong Hospital than anywhere else in NSW.

Mr Sterry won't know for several weeks whether an oral course of antibiotics has worked.

"If the antibiotics don't stem the infection then more radical surgery may be necessary, with the loss of a limb," he said.

Mr Sterry said in his time in the hospital's surgical ward he saw other patients infected with MRSA moved to isolation rooms.

He said he was told by a staff member his visit had occurred at "the wrong time".

"But there's too many cases of it in the hospital, there's too many cases in that ward to be unlucky," Mr Sterry said.

"There was about two or three four-bed rooms all with four people in them.

"There was a case of one elderly patient I know of who was advised to leave the hospital because (they had) a high risk of contracting MRSA."

A spokesperson for South Eastern Sydney Illawarra Health said patients at Wollongong Hospital were not being transferred elsewhere because of the risk of hospital-acquired infections.

"Patients requiring rehabilitation, geriatrics or slow stream medical care are routinely transferred to sub-acute hospitals such as Port Kembla or Bulli for care once their illness or injury has been managed. "