Around 77% of Wrexham Maelor Hospital staff tested since early July as part of outbreak response

Around 77% of staff at the hospital have been tested as part of the outbreak response, after the First Minister said “all staff are being tested”.

On the 14th of August First Minister Mark Drakeford said 20 per cent of workers at the hospital had been tested as part of a programme that would see”all staff” being tested, and that the following week would seen an ‘accelerated’ testing exercise rolled out. By the end of August that figure had reached around 33% based on the figures made public.

We requested a refresh of those figures to discover how the staff testing was progressing, and as of a week ago around 77% of staff have now been tested. Yesterday the Wrexham Maelor Hospital outbreak was formally declared ‘closed’, with a full report into incident due in November.

Gill Harris, Interim Chief Executive of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, told us: “Wrexham Maelor has approximately 2,500 staff working as part of acute services such as emergency services, medicine and surgery. As part of outbreak testing we have tested in the region of 77 per cent of these staff since the 6 July, carrying out more than 2,100 tests across these groups. In addition to this we have tested a further 500 staff as part of the asymptomatic testing programme.”

“There have been 58 members of staff who work at Wrexham Maelor Hospital who have tested positive for COVID-19 since 6th July. This includes staff who have experienced symptoms and staff who had not. It also includes staff who have not been in work in the period before the positive test and are not associated with the current outbreak.”

Yesterday we again put the First Minister’s comment about “all staff” testing when he was asked about tackling the outbreak at Wrexham Hospital back in early August. We asked Mr Drakeford if his comment was inaccurate as around 20% staff remain untested, and also asked if there are similar outbreaks will staff testing be done quicker?

The First Minister replied, “I don’t have those figures in front of me. Of course there may be staff who didn’t need to be tested because they weren’t working at the hospital during the relevant periods, they may be on the staff of the hospital, but they may be working somewhere else in the health board. They may be on leave, they may be on study elsewhere. It may not be the case that every single member of staff needed to be tested. I’ll take a look at the figures and make sure of that for myself.

“If there were to be a further outbreak, and it was necessary to test staff, then of course, that is what we would expect to happen.”

Original exchange:

Below is the full exchange where the ‘all staff are being tested’ comment was made was in response to Leader of the Opposition Paul Davies MS who was asking pandemic related questions on the 5th of August.

Mr Davies asked the First Minister: “First Minister, whilst rates of COVID-19 remain relatively low across Wales, as you refer in your statement, the number of patients infected with coronavirus while in hospital in north Wales has unfortunately risen. As you said, Wrexham Maelor Hospital has recently seen a spike in cases and has the highest recorded number of cases per 100,000 population in Wales. First Minister, clearly there’s an issue with infection control in north Wales, and that is under a health board in your Government’s direct control. Can you therefore tell us why the infection rates in Wrexham Maelor Hospital have increased recently? Can you also tell us what immediate actions you are taking to address the increase in infection rates in Wrexham Maelor Hospital, given that you say you are taking some actions? Can you reassure the people of north Wales that these outbreaks will now be contained, given that you are directly responsible for the delivery of health services in that area?”

The First Minister replied, ” I want to be clear that actions have already been taken at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital. The position has stabilised, as I said in my statement. There were 76 cases in the previous seven days, and that had fallen to 27 in the last seven days—a 64 per cent fall. Across Wrexham, the incidence rate, which on 26 July was 61.8 per 100,000, has fallen to 19.9 in the last seven days, and continues to fall. So, the position in Wrexham has been significantly brought under control, and continues to improve, and that is because of the actions that the hospital itself has taken—mandating use of face masks, new physical screening installed, a single point of entry for the public, and testing of all patients on arrival, by whatever route they arrive at the hospital. When those patients are screened, those who are suspected of having coronavirus are transferred to a side room on a COVID-positive ward and are nursed by a separate nursing team. Those with no symptoms are cohorted until swab results are available. Patients with a positive result are placed on a COVID-positive ward, and patients with a negative result are transferred to general bed use.

“As far as staff are concerned, all staff at the Maelor hospital are being tested. Six hundred of those tests are already booked. Staff are restricted in movements across the hospital, agency staff are restricted to particular wards, and thousands of additional items of PPE have been provided at the hospital—a comprehensive suite of measures, with more measures being added every day, and, Llywydd, as I said, the success of those measures is already evident.”