Patients waiting for non-emergency surgery at York District Hospital may face cancellations because an outbreak of diarrhoea has closed three wards.

The three emergency wards in the Medicine for the Elderly Unit have been closed to new admissions after 42 patients were struck down with the virus.

Hospital chiefs today said there were no plans yet to cancel non-emergency operations but they will be monitoring the situation daily.

Dr David Heseltine, consultant in medicine for the elderly, said: "We hope to be able to manage admissions within the total bed space of the hospital."

Since last Tuesday, 42 patients in the three emergency wards of the Medicine for the Elderly Unit have suffered from diarrhoea and vomiting.

The other four wards in the unit - with 84 beds in total - are unaffected and remain open.

Elderly patients admitted to the hospital as emergency cases will be placed elsewhere in the hospital.

There are 96 beds in the three wards which have been closed. Eighty patients are still in the wards, and 20 have the virus. At least a further 20 are recovering from the bug, which has been identified by public health experts as a strain of Norwalk Virus - which is airborne and very common.

It is highly infectious and causes diarrhoea and sickness for a period of 24-48 hours.

Dr Heseltine anticipated the crisis would be over in the next ten days.

He said: "We have contacted GPs and told them of the situation. They may choose not to admit somebody knowing they might be admitted to another ward rather than a specialist ward."

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