Taunton hospital re-opens to visitors

Restrictions are being lifted today Friday  Febraury 3rd at the wards in Musgrove Park Hospital  which was struck with the norovirus again.

They will be allowing visitors on the wards, although there will continue to be a number of restrictions in place so that the hospital can continue to contain and reduce the levels of the sickenss bug.

They are saying that  no-one should visit any of the wards in the hospital if they have experienced diarrhoea or vomiting in the last two days.

    No school aged children (or younger) should visit any of the wards in the hospital (exceptions will be made for our most seriously ill patients). becuse many of the schools and nurseries are passing  the bug around.

·  Set ward visiting times, are in place either between 2pm – 4pm and 6pm – 8pm and there should be no more than two visitors per patient during each of these sessions.

Colin Close, Medical Director at Musgrove Park Hospital said: "Visitors can bring norovirus in with them to hospital and we know some visitors have been to see patients when they have either had the symptoms themselves or have been in contact with someone else who has. Although we are allowing visitors on the wards we are asking them to help keep our patients safe by following the restrictions we have in place.

"If you are visiting a patient at Musgrove please remember to use the hand gel at the entrance to wards, and again on leaving. The gel should be rubbed into the hands until it fully evaporates without forgetting fingernails, thumbs, between fingers and wrists."

"We have robust procedures in place when dealing with outbreaks of Norovirus. As soon as Norovirus is suspected the ward is closed to new admissions and transfers are stopped to help reduce the risk of spread. Staff members permanently based on wards with infected patients are not allowed to work on other wards.

"Infected wards are not re-opened until there have been no patient with symptoms for 72 hours. Before re-opening to new admissions, the ward and equipment is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected".