The following wards were closed to new admissions as at 15:30hrs on Monday 14th May:

·          Aspen

·          Wordsworth

The following wards have some bays closed:

·          Holly

·          Juniper

·          May

·          Maple

“This outbreak of D&V appears to be particularly virulent and difficult to contain but we are making progress,” says Director of Nursing and Operations, Michaela Morris.  “We have been deep cleaning infected areas but unfortunately the infection has been sporadically reappearing.   It is prevalent in the local community and it is difficult to prevent it coming into the hospital without a total ‘lockdown’.”  

Urging visitors to the hospitals to rigorously follow infection control advice, Mrs Morris continued: “We reopened six of the nine wards at St. Peter’s last week and have remained open to blue light ambulances throughout.    We are seeking further advice from the Health Protection Agency and specialists in infection control on what additional measures we can take to resolve this problem.”

Infection control at Ashford and St. Peter’s was stepped up in 2006 with the appointment of a Director of Infection Protection and Control and a full team of specialist infection control consultants and nurses. MRSA bacteraemia rates at Ashford and St. Peter’s fell from 52 cases in 2005/06 to 31 cases in 2006/07.   The national 2006 survey of in-patients showed for Ashford and St. Peter’s that patients observed more staff washing their hands regularly.   The Trust has also brought its cleaning service back in-house.

Director of Infection Protection & Control Dr Angela Shaw comments: “It is vitally important that everyone gets better at hygiene measures such as washing hands.   Relatives and friends should not visit the hospital if they are feeling unwell or have had diarrhoea and vomiting in the previous 72 hours.   Our visitor guidelines require no more than 2 visitors per patient; no children under the age of 10; no flowers; and no sitting on beds.   It is also important that visitors do not visit more than one ward area.   All these measures help prevent the spread of infection.”