Listeria bacteria linked to two women's death at Manchester hospital 'traced back to food supplier'

A listeria outbreak which caused the death of two women was traced to a food processing company supplying chicken mayo sandwiches for NHS patients, an inquest has heard.

Retired nurse, Beverley Sowah, 57, and mother-of-five Enid Heap, 84, ate the sandwiches on successive days while they were being treated at Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) in 2019.

The women died a few days later and the "primary hypothesis" suggests that they suffered listeria infections from the sandwiches the hospital provided - they also had underlying health issues, a joint inquest heard at Manchester Court Coroner's Court.

Listeria causes an illness called listeriosis, which can be deadly for people with weakened immune systems.

Their deaths were part of a nationwide alert over the listeria outbreak which affected nine people in other hospitals, including in Liverpool, Leicester and Derby.

Tina Potter, head of incident at the Food Standards Agency regulator, told the inquest the outbreak was escalated to a high-priority incident.

The earliest point of identifying the listeria outbreak strain was discovered at meat suppliers North Country Quality Food (NCQF), who supplied the chicken for sandwich firm the Good Food Chain (GFC).

Jamaican-born Mrs Sowah was suffering from advanced breast cancer when she was admitted to MRI on 15 April 2019. Two days later she was fed the chicken mayo sandwich and died on 26 April 2019.

Mrs Heap, a retired chemist shop assistant, was served the same type of sandwich on 18 April 2019 after being admitted to hospital on 25 March 2019. She died on 6 May.

Contracted by the NHS to supply meals at the MRI, the GFC supplied the sandwiches to Sodexo.

Ms Potter said the investigations suggested the source of the listeria originated in the cooked chicken supplied to the GFC by NCQF, located in Salford.

The Good Food Chain, based in Stone, Staffordshire, supplied around 70 hospitals, making up to 40,000 sandwiches a day.

Safe levels of listeria exist and it is a widespread common bacteria with various strains. The maximum legal limit is 100 colony-forming units per gram (cfu/g), the inquest heard.

A sealed bag of chicken products was tested a month after the women's death by public health officials, with the sample showing an "unprecedented high level" of a listeria strain, Ms Potter said.

The level found in the diced chicken bag was 1,000 cfu/g – 10 times the legal limit.

The two MRI deaths were immediately linked as both patients ate the same sandwiches at the same hospital.

They worked backwards to trace the sandwich supplier and which firm had supplied the meat.

Zak Golombeck, Manchester city coroner, said: “You were able to conclude that the source of the listeria contamination was the cooked chicken?”

Ms Potter said: “That’s correct. We drew that conclusion because that was the product that patients had consumed.”

Another customer had a supply of bacon from NQCF which was found to have the strain of listeria involved in the hospital deaths.

Ms Potter added: “So having a pathogen genetically related in two food products within the same business would lead us to a likely hypothesis that there’s an environmental contamination that’s persisted.

“It’s really difficult once it takes a foothold in a business to get rid of it.”

The meat supplier and the sandwich maker have since gone into liquidation.

The hearing was adjourned until Friday morning.