'WE SHOULD'VE BEEN TOLD'
Doctors’ fury at secrecy over coronavirus medic who worked at A&E for TWO DAYS while infected
DOCTORS at a hospital A&E are raging they weren't told a GP colleague had the killer coronavirus.
The infected GP worked at Worthing Hospital, West Sussex for TWO DAYS last week before being diagnosed.
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It's unclear when the Worthing Hospital GP was diagnosed after finishing his shifts on Tuesday and Wednesday last week.
But shocked colleagues only found out through the local press yesterday and are furious NHS bosses kept his infection secret.
One doctor said: “I had to go into work this morning knowing someone in A&E had tested positive for coronavirus yet we had been told nothing. The first we heard about it was when we read it in the local newspaper.
"I was shocked and when I checked with colleagues I found they hadn’t been told either but were expected to turn up for work as normal.
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“What really angered me was managers knew about this and while they are telling everyone else about it only the people who were on duty at the time had been informed.
“I think, given the seriousness of the outbreak, the very least they could do is tell staff who are working under that threat.Staff are furious.”
The GP is one of eight Brits diagnosed with the killer bug as fears grow over how many patients he came into contact with.
Health officials are now scrambling to trace 12 patients treated by the Worthing GP and another infected doctor in Brighton.
The seaside town and the neighbouring Sussex coast is now at the heart of Britain's spiralling coronavirus crisis.
It came as:
- Super spreader Stephen Walsh is discharged from hospital
- Nine schools were put on coronavirus alert as kids and teachers were told to quarantine themselves
- An expert warned coronavirus could kill 45 million people and pose a bigger threat than terrorism
- A UK drug lord extradited from Thailand is at the heart of a suspected prison coronavirus outbreak
Scout leader Mr Walsh, 53, who is feared to have infected at least 11 people across Britain and Europe, was released from hospital today.
The businessman from Hove, East Sussex, was discharged from Guy's Hospital after recovering following spell in quarantine.
Dad-of-two Mr Walsh caught the virus on a business trip to Singapore last month.
Mr Walsh said: "I’m happy to be home and feeling well.
"I want to give a big thank you to the NHS who have been great throughout and my thoughts are with everyone around the world who continues to be affected by the virus.
"It’s good to be back with my family and I would ask you please to respect our privacy from this point on”.
NHS Professor Keith Willett said Mr Walsh's symptoms had been 'mild and he is no longer contagious, and poses no risk to the public'.
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Meanwhile, two nurses, one of them pregnant, were reportedly put in quarantine after treating a patient at a psychiatric hospital suspected of being infected with coronavirus - now named COVID-19.
A memo to staff at Worthing Hospital said the male GP treated a 'small number' of patients last week before he was diagnosed, Brighton newspaper reports.
The memo said: “It has been confirmed that a healthcare professional who works regularly in the Accident and Emergency Unit (A&E) at Worthing Hospital has tested positive for coronavirus (2019-nCov).
"They treated a small number of patients on 4th and 5th February before they became unwell, followed advice and self isolated.
"Public Health England is contacting all patients seen by this healthcare worker, and all colleagues who came into contact with them, to advise on the precautions they need to take.
"The risk to other staff is extremely low.
“The hospital is also following PHE guidance and all services are operating normally.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said all services at the hospital, including surgery and out patients, are operating normally.
Public Health England has launched an urgent hunt to trace patients treated by the Worthing Hospital GP.
A second GP, Dr Catriona Greenwood, who works in Brighton, is also one of eight confirmed cases in the UK.
She is believed to have contracted coronavirus at her French ski chalet when it was visited by 'super spreader' Mr Walsh last month.
Between them, the two south coast doctors worked at a nursing home, A&E and two GP practices.
PREGNANT NURSE IN ISOLATION
And two mental-health nurses, from The Haven in Mill View hospital, Hove, East Sussex, are in forced isolation after caring for a woman thought to have flown back Hong Kong with coronavirus symptons.
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They have been quarantined in a room next to the patient at the psychiatric hospital since Monday at 8.30pm, a source .
Neither nurse from the mental health ward has been allowed to leave, with staff due to be updated this morning, it is reported.
A source: "The night staff were not allowed to leave and the early shift sent to other wards.
“The woman concerned was assessed in a Mill View assessment room which has now been closed but it is nowhere near the wards so if it is confirmed there will not be a serious risk to the patients.”
A spokesman for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Mill View, declined to comment.
PRISON LOCKDOWN
The warning at Worthing Hospital comes as an alleged drug-dealing kingpin is at the centre of a suspected corona-virus outbreak at a high-security prison.
Mark Rumble, 31, collapsed in his cell at category B HMP Bullingdon, near Bicester, Oxfordshire, after serving time at a Thai jail days earlier.
Tonight hundreds of inmates were confined to their cells as panic spread.
An entire wing at the jail has been shut off with two cons now being tested for the deadly disease.
Prison chiefs were tonight awaiting urgent test results on Rumble and another man — due to be completed within 24 hours.
A source said: “The jail’s been in panic mode since the first person collapsed.
“Several hundred prisoners on C-wing are in lockdown and unable to leave their cells. A prison is just about the worst place for any outbreak because everyone is in such close quarters.”
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Thailand has had 33 confirmed cases of coronavirus and was the second country to be affected after China.
Its first case was declared on January 13 — a fortnight before Rumble’s return.
Rumble, who is on remand, was rushed to hospital and was understood to be in isolation in the jail’s healthcare wing.
A source explained that the stricken prisoner was being treated at a “specialist hospital” outside of the prison walls.
They added: “He is understood to have recently arrived at Bullingdon from a jail in Thailand under a transferral scheme.
“He is being treated at a specialist hospital outside the prison. The two other prisoners were displaying flu-like symptoms and are in Bullingdon’s hospital wing.”
All three of the prisoners were in single cells.
A prison nurse who first attended to Rumble has put herself into “self-isolation” at home.
Public Health England officials were spotted at the prison site assisting the 1,114 prisoners and advising staff as medics in hazmat suits entered the jail's suspect wing.
The segregated prisoners were said to be receiving separate food and medication from the other inmates.
Rumble, of Wallingford, Oxfordshire, was arrested in Pattaya, Thailand, last November on suspicion of drugs offences.
Rumble is due to enter a plea at Oxford crown court on February 20 and is thought to deny the charge against him. He was held in an operation by Thai cops in November.
While in Thailand he had posted photos of himself alongside celebrities, including boxing legend Ricky Hatton.
According to the Department of Health this afternoon a total of 1,358 people have been tested for coronavirus in the UK, of which 1,350 were confirmed negative and eight positive.
SCHOOLS SHUT
Today's scare at Bullingdon comes as panicked parents were allowed to pull their kids out of school amid fears coronavirus has spread to classrooms.
Pupils at Cottesmore St Mary's Catholic and Bevendean Primary School were told they could stay at home after it was revealed three more people may have caught the deadly disease from Steve Walsh — dubbed the city's "super-spreader".
Two people from Cottesmore St Mary's Catholic Primary School — where 'super-spreader' Mr Walsh's children attend — are currently in self-isolation for the next 14 days.
The school today would not clarify if the two patients are pupils or teachers.
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Meanwhile, a teacher was "self-isolated" at Bevendean Primary School — prompting parents to "shake with fear".
Worried mum Fran Gray, 40, said she rushed 20 miles to pick up her daughter from school after a parent WhatsApp group alerted her.
"Everyone is panicking and going crazy," she told Sun Online.
The UK remains on high alert as a growing number of people are tested for the highly contagious virus — labelled Covid-19 by the World Health Organization.
It comes after medics wearing hazmat suits were spotted in universities and health centres across the country.
'SUPER SPREADER'
Coronavirus cases in the UK doubled to eight yesterday after four more patients tested positive for the killer bug.
The new cases — three men and a woman — are all known contacts of super spreader Steve Walsh, who was diagnosed last week.
Dad-of-two Mr Walsh , who is still in quarantine at St Thomas' Hospital in London, says he is now fully recovered.
After landing back in the UK, Mr Walsh visited local boozer the Grenadier Pub, Hove, between 7pm and 9pm last Saturday.
But after popping in for a casual pint, five members of staff at the popular watering hole have since been forced to self-isolate at home for two weeks.
Dr Catriona Greenwood is thought to be one of the two medics infected — and may have passed the bug on to patients.
It comes after a second doctor's surgery in the city, the Warmdene surgery , closed.
Dr Greenwood works as a locum at the practice which has since been shut for decontamination as officials scramble to trace patients to be tested.
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WHO says Coronavirus 'is the worst enemy you can imagine' as it names it COVID-19
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