Health Board u-turn and say there are “currently between 60 and 70 confirmed coronavirus cases at Wrexham Maelor Hospital”

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board have changed their mind on releasing local data, giving information about Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

We have enquired about local hospital specific information several times but were told that was not possible for ‘confidentiality reasons’. We had pointed out that there has been site specific figures published by the Board for norovirus, and that the first death in Wales had the location of the Maelor as well as their age too.

Late this afternoon the Health Board issued an additional line, unprompted, to the below statement. It reads “We can confirm that there are currently between 60 and 70 confirmed COVID-19 cases at Wrexham Maelor Hospital.”

We asked what has changed since our last enquiry, and if this means there will be regular updates, and were told “There may not be regular updates, we understand the community are concerned and we want to keep them updated. If the numbers are small it may be not be possible to provide an update due to patient confidentiality.”

Original article below:
More cases of Coronavirus are expected to be discovered in connection with testing at hospital sites say the Health Board.

Gill Harris, Executive Director of Nursing & Midwifery at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, said: “We are actively testing staff and patients across our hospital sites, this includes all emergency admissions and those due to come in for planned surgery before they are admitted to hospital. Therefore, we expect to find more cases of COVID-19.”

“The number of cases will fluctuate on a daily or hourly basis; therefore we will not be able to provide accurate details of the number of cases other than the information provided by Public Health Wales. Weekly numbers of cases with onset in hospital are provided by Health Board on the Public Health Wales COVID-19 surveillance dashboard.

“We ask that people continue to avoid coming into our hospitals with any COVID-19 symptoms and avoid visiting the Wrexham Maelor Hospital Emergency Department unless it is necessary.

“We are actively encouraging patients, the public and staff to wear face coverings or masks in public areas in our hospitals.”

“We would like to appeal to the public for their support as we all have a role to play in preventing the spread of infection. We ask that our communities continue to maintain good hand hygiene and observe social distancing guidance.”

After querying over the weekend, the Health Board said on Saturday “Over the past couple of weeks, there has been an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the Wrexham area.”