Health chiefs today closed a hospital to visitors in an effort to contain an outbreak of swine flu.
As 22 people battled the virus in intensive care across Merseyside and Cheshire, bosses banned friends and relatives from visiting wards at Arrowe Park Hospital.
A hospital spokesman said the drastic steps had been taken to ‘reduce the risk of visitors with cold and flu symptoms spreading infections to patients and staff’.
Most friends and family will be turned away from Arrowe Park, but officials will decide whether to allow visitors for patients with life-threatening illnesses on a case by case basis
The closure comes as latest figures suggested overall cases of flu had soared by 45 per cent in the last week – most of which are suspected to be the H1N1 swine flu strain.
Visitors to Arrowe Park will be turned away at the gates from 4pm today in an effort to stop the virus spreading further.
Liverpool (PCT) confirmed that 22 patients in Merseyside and Cheshire are now being treated in critical care beds swine flu, and Arrowe Park Hospital is expected to remain closed into the weekend.
At least one scheduled clinic was cancelled today and bosses said they were meeting on a daily basis to revise the situation.
The hospital stressed that patients battling life-threatening illnesses would be allowed visitors depending on their condition and that ward managers would make those decisions on a case by case basis.
At Wirral Women and Children’s Hospital, connected to Arrowe Park, patients in the maternity and gynaecology wards will be allowed visits from their partners – as long as they do not have flu-like symptoms.
Click to enlarge
Tina Long, Director of Nursing and Midwifery at the Hospital, said: ‘We are asking visitors to please bear with us at this time and not to come to the hospital to visit friends or family members unless they are very seriously ill.
‘This temporary suspension of visiting will help us to concentrate on looking after those patients who need to be in hospital. Read all post…
The swine flu pandemic is now officially over Geneva – In press conference today, WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan has announced an end to the H1N1 pandemic that had been declared on June 11, 2009. He added that we’re now in the post-pandemic phase and that the virus has largely run its course. The World Health Organization (WHO), based in Geneva, has officially declared an end to the pandemic concerning the H1N1 virus, popularly known as swine flu. The particular strain of virus that emerged April last year, was regarded as very dangerous and soon (June 2009) led the WHO to declare a worldwide pandemic, with fearful governments across the globe spending millions on prevention by way of vaccines.