Weston MP says hospital’s coronavirus outbreak ‘nipped in the bud’

An outbreak of coronavirus cases at a West Country hospital has been “nipped in the bud”, according to a local MP.

John Penrose, who is the Conservative MP for Weston-super-Mare, said the decision to close the town’s hospital on 25 May had resolved the issue.

Posting on Twitter, the MP said the “source of infection” came from the hospital and “not anywhere else”.

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Weston General Hospital stopped accepting new patients in May due to a high number of Covid-19 cases.

Patients on a non-Covid ward were among those infected, as well as more than 100 members of staff.

In a statement the hospital said work to ensure it could accept new patients and reopen the the A&E department was "on going".

It also said no new cases of Covid-19 had been detected on the non-Covid wards since the hospital closed.

But, it added, following initial testing around 6% of the staff group at the hospital were asymptomatic and infected.

Robert Woolley, chief executive at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, said: “It’s encouraging that we continue to see no evidence of in-hospital transmission. This is a reflection of the hard work and commitment of our staff to tackle this situation and keep our patients and each other safe.

“We will continue to test patients and staff regularly, as part of the careful planning to ensure we can re-open services as soon as possible. This includes deep cleaning the hospital, and carefully working through how we open our doors to new patients whilst maintaining the safety of our patients and staff.”

A hospital whistleblower told ITV News West Country the outbreak could have been prevented if the correct safety procedures had been followed.

Hospital bosses, meanwhile, say they are “continually focused” on protecting patients and staff.

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