HEALTH chiefs have had to temporarily close around around 25 beds at Altnagelvin Hospital due to a vomiting bug and staffing shortages.
All non-urgent routine procedures “will be cancelled in the coming days”, the Western Health Trust said.
It added there were a “number of ongoing challenges” and apologised for any inconvenience caused to patients.
Increased infection prevention and control measures have been put in place.
Dr Dermot Hughes, the trust’s medical director, said: “The closures include Ward 5 (Elective Orthopaedics) due to increased instances of vomiting and diarrhoea and other beds throughout the hospital have been closed as a result of available nurse staffing levels and delays in patient discharges.”
He said the situation was being reviewed on a daily basis to “ensure the most urgent scheduled operations and treatments are done”.
“People should avoid visiting the hospital if they are feeling unwell, particularly if they have diarrhoea and/or vomiting,” he added.
“Those who are visiting are asked to thoroughly wash their hands before and after visiting. Visitors should visit only one patient whilst at the hospital, refrain from sitting on hospital beds and not move from ward to ward when visiting.”
The SDLP’s health spokesperson and Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan said while some of the issues were beyond the control of the trust or Department of Health, others are recurrent.
“We have an insufficient number of qualified staff and those that we do have are overstretched,” he said. “This problem is only going to become more pronounced in the future unless action is taken now.
“Delays in patient discharges are often due to a lack of suitable home care packages to support discharged patients.
“This is an area in dire need of urgent and major investment.”
