A RECENT outbreak of a severe stomach bug at Scarborough Hospital is now said to be “under control”.

The hospital has given details of the measures it has used to rid wards of the clostridium difficile bacteria, following a reported 11 cases during June.

A spokeswoman for the Woodlands Drive site said an isolation ward had been set up, visiting had been restricted, and “fogging” had been carried out – a process which sees areas emptied of people before being filled with a sterilising mist, leaving all surfaces free of contamination.

While confirming the outbreak was now under control, the spokeswoman said staff “could not be complacent”. “We have been quite proactive in informing the public that we have c difficile,” she said.

“We have been controlling visitors because that doesn’t help with the spread when you have visitors coming in and out.

“We are having a big push on hand washing and the ‘bare below the elbows’ rule.

“We have also introduced fogging which is a really intense infection control. You empty a whole area and it decontaminates everything in the area. It lets out a fine mist which decontaminates everything and then you know it’s absolutely clean.”

The hospital said the measures meant it now no longer had patients in the specially set up isolation ward and said it was confident the number of clostridium difficile cases would not be above its target figure for this year.

“We managed last year and the year before,” said the spokeswoman.

“There are peaks of contamination most of the year, particularly when it’s busy.

“We are hoping we can achieve that staying under the target with the things we are doing at the moment.”