English hospital shuts its doors as coronavirus cases surge

Boris Johnson’s government expected to announce further loosening of lockdown curbs

A hospital in the west of England has temporarily closed its doors to new patients as it copes with a large number of coronavirus sufferers.

Weston General Hospital in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, announced it would stop accepting patients, including into its emergency department, from 8am on Monday.

It described the move as 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”.

The announcement came as the cabinet prepared to meet at Monday lunchtime to discuss further moves in lifting the lockdown. On Sunday Boris Johnson, prime minister, confirmed that some primary school children in England were expected to return to classrooms on June 1, with older children preparing for exams due to have “some contact” with teachers from June 15.

The south-west of England has been less badly affected by the virus than other parts of the UK. The latest official mortality figures published on Sunday showed it had the smallest number of deaths from the disease of any English region.

Dr William Oldfield, medical director at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, said: “As with any hospital, the number of patients with Covid-19 will frequently change as people are admitted and discharged.”

A high number of patients with Covid-19 were being treated in Weston General Hospital, he said.

While the vast majority would have come into the hospital suffering from Covid-19, “as an extra precaution we have taken the proactive step to temporarily stop accepting new patients to maintain patient and staff safety”, added Dr Oldfield.

The hospital said it had “a robust coronavirus testing programme in place for patients and staff to identify cases quickly, with appropriate measures taken by clinical teams as required”.

However, the hospital’s decision to halt admissions underlines the challenge the NHS faces in attempting to resume normal services, scaled back during the pandemic, without risking patients either importing or contracting, the virus.

Arrangements were in place for new patients to continue to have access to treatment and care “in other appropriate healthcare settings in the area should they need it”, the hospital said. It was “continuing to provide high-quality care to existing patients who are being treated in the hospital”.

The situation was being kept “under constant review”, it added.

Initial fears that NHS hospitals would be overwhelmed by coronavirus patients have proved largely unfounded since case numbers began to escalate in March. Northwick Park in London declared a “critical incident” on March 20, while Watford General in Hertfordshire declared an incident on April 5 due to a technical issue affecting oxygen supplies.

By and large, however, measures ordered by NHS leaders to clear beds for virus patients by cancelling all non-urgent surgery, and dispatching anyone medically fit into the community, have ensured that the health service in England has coped with the surge of patients.