Surrey hospital on partial lockdown after Covid outbreak hits intensive care unit

A SURREY hospital has been partially locked down after a coronavirus outbreak hit its intensive care and renal wards.

Ambulances were diverted from A&E yesterday at St Helier Hospital, Sutton, with an investigation launched into the cases.

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Hospital bosses have placed the site in partial lockdown, restricting visitors to some wards after infections were discovered over the weekend.

It is believed that six patients were infected. There is concern that the virus has got into the hospital’s intensive care unit which houses the most sick patients.

A hospital source said: “Infection control in intensive care is very strict. It’s very concerning that people fighting for their life already have become infected.”

The trust stressed ambulances are now taking patients to A&E as normal and patients should continue to turn up for appointments.

It comes days after Basildon Hospital was struck by an outbreak of coronavirus with 21 staff and patients infected.

The outbreak in the Essex hospital is said to have happened in the respiratory ward rather than the hospital's specialist Covid ward.

And 13 patients have now died following an outbreak at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant.

The Government has been under pressure for months to introduce routine weekly testing of hospital staff for coronavirus.

Last week the House of Commons Health Committee added its weight to the call for regular testing to protect patients.

COVID CRISIS

Covid infections have hit several other hospitals in recent weeks with the finger being pointed at staff spreading the virus.

It is believed that hundreds of patients have died during the pandemic from hospital-acquired Covid passed on by staff.

A spokesman for Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust said: "A small number of patients have tested positive for Covid-19 during admission to the Renal Department and Intensive Care Unit at St Helier Hospital.

“The safety and wellbeing of our patients and staff is our priority and those who tested positive have been isolated from other patients, with arrangements in place to maintain safe and high-quality care. We continue to follow all relevant infection prevention and control guidelines.

"Visiting has been restricted for some areas, as soon as clinicians are confident that the measures can be lifted in a way that is safe for patients and staff, they will be.”

We told yesterday how up to fifty thousand Brits may not have been told they had been exposed to coronavirus after a bungling health chief's Excel spreadsheet maxed out.

Public Health England admitted they had missed 15,841 cases from their official stats - with daily infection rates shooting up to a record high of 22,961 on Sunday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was unable to say how many contacts of positive coronavirus had been missed as a result of the fiasco.

He told reporters in central London: "I can't give you those figures. What I can say is all those people are obviously being contacted and the key thing is that everybody, whether in this group or generally, should self-isolate."