A CORONAVIRUS outbreak in an NHS hospital may have killed at least 18 people, an investigation has found. Weston General Hospital in Somerset temporarily stopped accepting new patients, including to its accident and emergency department, from May 25 and reopened fully in June. Now an internal report has revealed that 31 patients who died in […]
A CORONAVIRUS outbreak in an NHS hospital may have killed at least 18 people, an investigation has found.
Weston General Hospital in Somerset temporarily stopped accepting new patients, including to its accident and emergency department, from May 25 and reopened fully in June.
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Now an internal report has revealed that 31 patients who died in the hospital between May 5 and 24 had contracted Covid-19.
In 18 of these patients the infection “may have contributed to their death”, the report stated.
University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust has expressed its “deep regret” over the deaths and said it is “deeply sorry”.
Medical Director Dr William Oldfield said: “During the investigation we identified 31 patients who have sadly passed away having contracted Coronavirus infection whilst they were an inpatient in the hospital.
“A detailed review into each of these individuals was undertaken.
“To our profound regret, in 18 of these patients the infection may have contributed to their death. We are deeply sorry for this.
“We are already in contact with the families of these patients and have informed them of the outcome of the review.”
Dr Oldfield said the foundation trust had “apologised unreservedly” to the patients’ families and offered them support.
No single source for the outbreak has been identified, the report added.
He continued: “Our investigation, and independent PHE analysis, has not identified a single cause for the outbreak.
“There are a number of factors which may have contributed, these include; the size and layout of the hospital, the number and configuration of beds, relatively small team sizes and the need to move staff between wards to provide safe staffing levels, and the presence of both staff and patients who were asymptomatic but tested positive for COVID-19.”
He added that lessons had been learned from the incident and a number of actions implemented.
As well as this, a number of recommendations from the investigation had already been implemented including reducing the number of beds to improve social distancing and minimising staff movements across the hospital.
Dr Oldfield also said the trust had introduced the “rapid” turnaround of Covid-19 testing to know whether a patient had the virus very early in their admission.
University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust said its investigation was in addition to an ongoing independent system-wide lessons learned review which was yet to conclude.
