Norovirus outbreak shuts wards at hospital

In December last year, wards at both Doncaster Royal Infirmary and Montagu Hospital in Mexborough were closed to new patients due to an outbreak.

To deal with the latest outbreak of norovirus, visitors have been asked to stay away and not risk bringing infections into hospital where vulnerable patients may be infected.

Maurice Madeo, deputy director of infection prevention and control at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said yesterday: “Hand hygiene is the single most important thing that we can do to prevent the spread of infections.

“We advise staff to wash their hands before and after every patient contact – and that’s advice we could all adopt.

“Wash your hands frequently and regularly with hand wash or soap.

“Make sure that you really wash between your fingers, under your finger nails, and around your thumbs and wrists.

”We can’t be too careful about limiting the spread of all infections. An infection on top of another medical condition can prove fatal to sick, frail patients.

“So we all need to be mindful of the need for best practice in personal hygiene.”

Staff at the hospitals are telling both patients and visitors not to go to hospital as an inpatient, outpatient, or visitor if they have any signs of a stomach upset.

If visiting someone in hospital is unavoidable, visitors should wash their hands before and after the visit, using the hand gel provided at the entrances to the wards.

The first sign of norovirus is usually a “sudden sick feeling” followed by “forceful vomiting and watery diarrhoea.”

Some people may also have: a raised temperature, headaches, stomach cramps and aching limbs.