Full story at Chronicle Live 24 April 2018
An “unprecedented” demand for beds and “old fashioned” hospital facilities “probably” contributed to the North East’s biggest norovirus outbreak in years, a report has found.
The Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust was first hit with the winter vomiting bug in early December last year when a visitor brought mussels onto a ward for a patient at Wansbeck General Hospital (WGH).
It then had visitor restrictions in place for two months at all nine of its sites as it battled outbreaks of both flu and norovirus, with many wards closed altogether.
Now the trust has commissioned an expert report into why the outbreaks were so protracted and how to prevent them in the future.