 The hospital is now shut to new admissions for Christmas |
A Kent hospital is closed to new admissions over Christmas to try to contain an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug and allow deep cleaning. By Wednesday, 14 of the 16 wards at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital had been closed since the outbreak of the Norovirus on 13 December.
The hospital said on Friday that they had managed to deep clean two wards so the number of closures had fallen.
The minor injuries, maternity, renal and blood units will open at Christmas.
Elaine Strachan, from the East Kent NHS trust, said the hospital always shuts down for operations over Christmas.
"But from the early hours of Christmas Day we will start to divert GP admissions and trauma ambulances to be looked after by other hospitals - the William Harvey in Ashford an the QEQM in Margate", she said.
She added that some services at the Kent and Canterbury would remain open, including Accident and Emergency.
The trust said they had chosen this period because they wanted to "rest" the hospital to see if they can stop the spread of the virus quicker.
The hospital acknowledges that people want to visit patients over Christmas but asks for it to be kept to immediate family.
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