Surgery set to restart at Hartlepool hospital after Covid outbreak

All scheduled surgery at the hospital was cancelled on Wednesday, October 7.

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust intend to restart day case surgery again on Friday, October 9, and full elective operations on Monday, October 12.

All theatres will be deep cleaned this weekend.

As of Thursday, (October 8) 159 hospital staff had been tested with 130 results back. Six tested positive for coronavirus and all are isolating.

A total of 18 operations have been affected by the two-day suspension.

Chris Tulloch, Deputy Medical Director, earlier said: “We have not taken this decision lightly.

"First and foremost, the safety of both our patients and our staff must come above and beyond everything else.

“This precaution, we hope will give minimal disruption to our elective surgery activity.He said the source of the infections was not known and “may well have been contracted outside the organisation”.

Mr Tulloch added: “In the spirit of openness and honesty – with which we always operate,immediate action must be taken to prevent further spread.

"We hope our communities support and understand our actions.”

Hartlepool’s infection rate rose for the seven days to October 2 with 212 new cases equivalent to 226.3 per 100,000 people.

The previous week the rate was 130.3.

A new Office of National Statistics survey, carried out between April and June, found that 86.1% of people who tested positive did not have any of the core symptoms when they took the test.

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