Health Protection Agency praise Trust for its management and response to outbreak

The response of staff at Ashford and St. Peter’s hospitals to the recent outbreak of Norovirus, better know as ‘winter vomiting disease’ has been praised at the Trust Board meeting held on 31^st May.

In his report to the Board, Chief Executive, Glenn Douglas says that “the organisation responded admirably to fighting this and I particularly commend Deputy Director of Operations, Joanne Edwards, who led our response; the infection control team; and our housekeeping staff, who went the extra mile and repaid our confidence in bringing the service back ‘in-house’ last year.”

Mr Douglas notes that neighbouring Trusts have all suffered similar outbreaks and although the Trust did not close to surgical or emergency admissions neighbouring Trusts, including Frimley Park and the Royal Surrey supported Ashford and St. Peter’s by taking medical admissions and this enabled the Trust to fight the virus quicker than might have been the case.

The Trusts who provided support to Ashford and St. Peter’s were:

·         Frimley Park Hospital Foundation Hospital – throughout 2^nd to 8^th May 2007

·         Royal Surrey County Hospital – intermittently between 2^nd and 8^th May 2007

·         and additional ad-hoc support was provided by Kingston and West Middlesex Hospitals

Director of Nursing and Operations at Ashford and St. Peter’s in her report to the Board says that although the outbreak affected nine wards at St. Peter’s Hospital from 2^nd to 16^th May a number of positive factors worked to the advantage of the Trust including the:

·         expert advice of the infection control team;

·         widely communicated and strictly adhered to infection control measures;

·         dedication of a large number of ward nurses, doctors and managers; and

·         generous partnership working of neighbouring acute Trusts and South East Coast ambulance service;

the impact of the outbreak was contained within a relatively short two week window.

Mrs Morris says: “It is pleasing to note that the Health Protection Agency (HPA) have recently conveyed to our Infection Control Team how pleased they have been with the Trust’s management and communication of information during the outbreak and believe this has been a vital component in bringing about the closure of the outbreak at the earliest opportunity.”

The Trust Board considered a full report on the outbreak from Dr Angela Shaw, Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust.  A meeting of all the parties involved in managing the outbreak is being held in June to ensure that lessons learned are disseminated widely.