Swine flu fears close Arrowe Park hospital

SWINE flu today closed a Merseyside hospital to visitors as health bosses moved to stop the virus spreading.

Arrowe Park hospital turned families and friends away after it announced that the Wirral hospital had stopped visiting hours in a bid to protect vulnerable patients.

Health chiefs are meeting daily to discuss how best to handle the situation and a decision to keep running clinics at the hospital tomorrow is also being reviewed.

Tina Long, Director of Nursing and Midwifery at the Hospital said: “We are asking visitors to please bear with us at this time and not to come to the Hospital to visit friends or family members unless they are very seriously ill.

“This temporary suspension of visiting will help us to concentrate on looking after those patients who need to be in Hospital. We will of course lift this restriction as soon as we can.”

She added: “On behalf of the Trust, I apologise for any inconvenience that these temporary measures may cause to visitors and patients but we will lift the restriction as soon as possible.”

Other hospitals in Merseyside said their visiting hours remained unchanged, despite the seasonal rise in flu cases.

Nightwear and gifts for Arrowe Park patients can be left at the hospital’s main reception.

Hospital patient in swine flu death

A woman suffering from swine flu has died in the West Midlands as hospitals battled rising cases of the disease, it emerged today.

The victim was in her 70s and had been a patient at New Cross Hospital in Wol-verhampton for over a week when she passed away in Intensive Care on Monday.

The unnamed woman was showing symptoms of the disease on her admission last week and tests later confirmed that she was a sufferer.

But she had other underlying medical conditions that could have caused or contributed to her death.

The woman who died, and is believed to have lived in Wolverhampton, was also showing signs of pneumonia and a potentially serious lung condition.

The hospital’s chief executive David Loughton said: “We would urge people, especially those at risk chronic lung condition, asthma, heart problems, the elderly and pregnant women, to have the flu jab as a matter of urgency.”

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust said it was treating seven people with flu, including swine flu cases.