Children are banned from visiting Galway hospital

A blanket ban on child visitors has been imposed on University Hospital Galway to combat another outbreak of the Winter vomiting bug.

Children are more susceptible to the Winter Vomiting Virus, and all non-essential visits to the hospital have been curtailed until further notice.

Anybody who must visit the hospital has been asked by the HSE West to strictly adhere to visiting restrictions and hygiene guidelines, which include washing hands.

It is the second outbreak of the bug at UHG in the past few months. Visiting restrictions were in place for three days between December 7 and 10.

However, eight days after the restrictions were lifted, the authorities had to row-back and reintroduce visiting restrictions on December 18. The visiting ban lasted over six weeks, and was only lifted on January 30 of this year.

The exact numbers of confirmed cases of the bug this week hasn’t been released, as there are a number of people with bug-type symptoms.

In a statement hospital management appealed for the public not to bring children to the hospital and “to adhere strictly to visiting restrictions and hygiene guidelines”.

Said Ann Cosgrove, General Manager, Galway University Hospitals: “The hospital is under tremendous pressure and we simply cannot afford to lose beds because of virus outbreaks. Patients and staff have to come in and out and we manage that risk as best we can. However, there is a lot of unnecessary traffic through the hospital and we ask people not to visit if they are ill themselves or have been recently.”

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel