Hospital reopens wards after winter bug outbreak

ALL six hospital wards sealed off after an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug have now been reopened.

But officials at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire put two more wards on stand-by for possible restrictions in case more patients with the so-called norovirus infection need admitting to the complex.

The improvement means that for the first time this month, the Hartshill trust has all 1,200 beds available to take emergency cases waiting in its accident unit.

But NHS managers were maintaining their advice for the public to seek hospital treatment only in the event of emergency.

For any less severe illness, people are still being urged to seek help from GP surgeries, the out-of-hours urgent care service based at Basford, or chemists, some of which stayed open for part of Christmas Day.

And doctors were bracing themselves for an expected surge of seriously ill patients who traditionally arrive at the hospital today and tomorrow.

The last two wards to re-open to new patients on Christmas Eve were 57 – an overspill medical area on the maternity unit – and ward 84. The closures began on December 11.

The capacity crisis behind recent chaotic scenes and marathon delays faced by patients on trolleys in the emergency department was also eased by the number of blocked beds falling to their lowest level for more than a year. Last month, delayed discharges of recovering patients was running at more than 100 – but by Christmas Eve, the figure was down to 45.

The breakthrough follows a range of measures to speed up the flow of patients through the trust. They include scores of extra beds being made available in the area's community hospitals, or "spot-bought" by the NHS in private nursing homes to take the patients off the University Hospital's hands.

A spokesman said: "We have been able to open the last two wards to new admissions because the norovirus patients have recovered enough to leave and the areas have been deep-cleaned.

"But people suffering from the bug are still arriving, so we are assessing whether we may have to close two others if they need admitting.

"Of late, there has been unprecedented working together to predict demand and capacity involving us, the two primary care trusts and Combined Healthcare which runs Bucknall Hospital. That seems to be starting to pay off.

"Traditionally, more patients come in on Boxing Day and the 27th because people have tried to manage their conditions at home without help through Christmas Day but then they become acutely ill afterwards.

"Our staff deserve huge credit for the hard work they have done to help get us over this challenging period. And the restrictions we have placed on visiting have also played a crucial part."

The crisis has prompted all NHS bodies in North Staffordshire to introduce a daily "conference call" which has been held every morning – including Christmas Day. It involves senior managers with the powers to make things happen and staff leaders to put their decisions into effect immediately.

Their purpose is to track and pull together data on the progress of every patient in a hospital bed and use it to map out capacity and match it to forecast demand.