Patients warned of hospital ward closure

Dr Peter Cowling, Trust consultant microbiologist, said: “Ward 23 is currently closed to admissions due to an outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting.

“Patients from the ward will not be discharged to nursing or residential homes while they remain an infection risk and we have closed the ward to new admissions.

“The infection prevention and control team is reviewing the situation daily and regular and frequent disinfection is being carried out on the ward to contain the outbreak. Tests are being carried out to establish if the outbreak is due to norovirus, also known as the winter vomiting bug.”

Dr Cowling added: “This virus has been circulating in the local community for a while now with a number of care homes being affected. The recent outbreak on wards 16 and 17 was found to be a new strain of the virus for our region, which meant more staff were taken ill than would be expected. This outbreak on ward 23 is likely to be caused by the same virus.”

Visitors who have been suffering from diarrhoea or vomiting are urged not to come to the hospital until they have been symptom free for 48 hours.

Staff are being advised not to come to work if they have symptoms and to stay off for 48 hours after the symptoms have stopped, as they will be infectious to others during this period.

The hospital say there is no specific cure for the illness, which is usually mild and should not last more than a couple of days.