12:45pm Monday 8th February 2010
By Carl Brown
THE outbreak of norovirus at Whipps Cross may have been avoided if funding had been approved to replace open wards, according to the hospital's recently departed chairman.
Stephen Jacobs OBE, who stepped down last week, said: “I was unable to persuade numerous senior politicians, Secretaries of State for Health and health service managers that Whipps Cross needed either a complete re-build or at least significant capital investment.
“As a result, we still have many open 'nightingale' type wards where only curtains separate many elderly and infection-prone patients.
“It is believed that cross infections are more likely to occur in these open wards than in modern hospitals where single or double bedded occupancy of rooms is the norm.
“The new North East London Acute Hospital plan does not guarantee this urgent investment. “This must be provided if local people are to receive the care, protection and dignity they rightly deserve.”
Mr Jacobs said the campaign to save Whipps must be “re-ignited” in the face of proposed NHS building spending cuts.
The outbreak of norovirus closed 19 wards and A&E.
The hospital has now lifted most visitor restrictions, although a small number of wards remain closed.
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