Virus closes Belfast hospital wards

A leading Belfast hospital was forced to close four wards to new admissions today following a fresh outbreak of a stomach virus.

A leading MP questioned whether a “penny-pinching” attitude to cleaning and hygiene was behind the outbreak of the bug which causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea.

The City Hospital closed both surgical and medical wards in a bid to prevent the spread of the highly infectious virus which has hit both patients and staff.

Hospital chiefs fear more wards may have to be closed depending on the severity of the gastroenteritis virus which has struck four of 11 floors at the hospital’s tower block.

It is the same virus which caused chaos across Northern Ireland hospitals in January and led to ward closures in several hospitals struggling to cope with high winter admissions.

City Hospital medical director Dr Ken Fullerton admitted that the ward closures would put pressure on hospital services, in particular the accident and emergency unit.

He urged all patients booked to be admitted for treatment to contact the hospital first, but said arrangements had been made for those in “urgent need” to be admitted to wards elsewhere in the hospital.

Dr Fullerton said the problem would create further pressure on an already crowded system as GP’s face increasing problems in getting patients admitted for treatment.

“This may cause inconvenience to some patients for the rest of this week, but we have taken steps to ensure that patients with urgent need can be admitted.”

He said the hospital’s infection control teams had advised that the virus was highly infectious, but not serious.

“It has been identified as one which causes symptoms for a few days and then clears up. It does not require treatment.”

Democratic Unionist Party health spokesman, Iris Robinson, MP, said the hospital had taken “obvious and sensible measures” to deal with the outbreak.

But she questioned whether “penny-pinching” cost-cutting measures in the health service were aiding the spread of germs.

“Many years ago we had matrons who had staff that oversaw the cleaning of wards, but that doesn’t seem to happen as much these days.

“We’ve got to ask ourselves does that make sense when applied to the whole area of disease being transmitted and carried through wards.”