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An NHS hospital has been forced to close its accident and emergency department to new admissions as a result of high numbers of patients with the coronavirus. Weston General Hospital, in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, stopped accepting A&E patients at 8am on Monday morning.
The University Hospitals Bristol and Weston Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, said patients who needed care would be treated elsewhere in the local area. The trust has not said how many new patients with the virus have been admitted or whether the closure has followed a sudden surge in cases.
A statement on the trust website said:
"Weston General Hospital will temporarily stop accepting new patients, including into its A&E department, as of 8am today.The trust said the decision had been clinically led and supported by its local NHS commissioners.
"This is a precautionary measure in order to maintain the safety of staff and patients in response to the high number of patients with coronavirus in the hospital."
Dr William Oldfield, medical director, said:
"As with any hospital, the number of patients with Covid-19 will frequently change as people are admitted and discharged. We currently have a high number of patients with Covid-19 in Weston General Hospital. Whilst the vast majority will have come into the hospital with Covid-19, as an extra precaution we have taken the proactive step to temporarily stop accepting new patients to maintain patient and staff safety.Mark Canniford, mayor of Weston-super-Mare and a Liberal Democrat member of North Somerset Council, last week criticised the "total disregard" for the town's residents from day-trippers who packed on to the beach.
"This is a clinically led decision and we are being supported by our system partners to ensure that new patients receive the care and treatment they need in the appropriate setting, and we are continuing to provide high quality care to existing patients who are being treated in the hospital.
"We have a robust coronavirus testing programme in place for patients and staff to identify cases quickly, with appropriate measures taken by clinical teams as required. We will keep the situation under constant review."
Speaking to The Independent on Monday, Mr Canniford said he did not think there was a link between the crowds on the beach and the closure of the hospital:
"because it was too soon. I think its unlikely, but you can't rule it out. We have been behind the curve on the virus so we could just be catching up. The area had seen an increase in Travellers and people visiting from out of town.
"The people you see roaming about don't tend to live here. The locals are pretty sensible and stay away. We do get people with mobile homes and the Traveller community who don't tend to follow social distancing.
"People should not be roaming around. It's not fair to the communities they are roaming to. People seem to think they don't have symptoms so they're ok, but it's not."
Reader Comments
Why bother with "I vas only obeying orders" as a defence, when "I was only trying to help" does the job so much better.
'Gypsies', 'Pikies', are considered racist terms by whatever government institutions these days.
The fact that they're now supposed to be referred to as 'travellers', doesn't stop travellers referring to themselves as gypsies and doesn't stop people fearing/loathing gypsies/pikies/travellers.
Although, unless there's some kind of endangered species preservation order on 'travellers', how it is actually possible to maintain an existence as a gypsy/pikie/traveller in the current age is quite frankly beyond the scope of my imagination.
Since when has UK law applied to Pikeys / Pikies
I have limited knowledge of raggle-taggle gypsy folk, although I did speak to one gypsy guy a while a go who was pissed off that the DWP had forced him to go an adult literacy course so he could fill in online benefit forms. He was also put on prescription drugs by the NHS 'cause he was suffering from a terrible mental illness known in common parlance as 'having a bit of character'.
Let's face it, there's no room for a life out on the open road here anymore and since the advent of the tumble drier, there hasn't been much demand for door-to-door peg salesmen.
I'd be happy to be called whatever people want to call me if it meant being exempt from normal laws
Did they ever actually sell clothes pegs, I thought that was just an excuse to case the joint
From Wikipedia:
The largest and most affluent population of about 2,500 lives in Murphy Village, outside of the town of North Augusta, South Carolina.
From a state magazine:
On Tuesday, a federal grand jury returned an indictment of 45 counts against 22 people, most of them Travelers living in Murphy Village. The indictment alleges the group committed different kinds of fraud and money laundering schemes, among other charges.Similar allegations have been raised against Travelers in the past. But for the most part, they are praised within their community in Aiken County. According to published reports, it’s common practice for travelers to not target residents in their own neighborhood.
I guess this sort of terminology might be somewhat dependent on what pubs you've frequented in the past.
"Making someone ill or killing them, in order to make you look like a hero".
Angel of Death: Beverly Allitt...[Link]
Serial Killer: Martha Woods...[Link]