TWO wards had to be closed and another two closely monitored after an outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting at a hospital in Winchester.

The outbreak left 34 patients suffering from symptoms caused by the highly contagious Norovirus, which is commonly referred to as the 'winter vomiting disease'.

The Royal Hampshire County Hospital was forced to temporarily shut down two of its wards last week after 18 patients in the Clarke and Letchworth Wards were found to have contracted the illness.

A further two wards, the Clifton Ward and the Freshfield Ward, were also being closely monitored after a further 16 patients started exhibiting similar symptoms this week.

A spokeswoman for the hospital confirmed that though the wards being monitored had not been shut, new patients are being warned there had been a break-out in diarrhoea and vomiting before they came onto the wards.

Visitors are also being asked to wash their hands if moving around between wards at the hospital.

However bosses at the Romsey Road facility were quick to point out that outbreaks of this type from the Norovirus are relatively common, and though uncomfortable for sufferers the virus is not a serious risk to health.

They added that relatively speaking the outbreak hadn't been too bad and that it had caused no problems with regard to treating other patients on other wards.

Hospital chiefs also made the point that their award winning cleaning service, which recently scooped a national award for hygiene, had also been put to work cleansing the infected wards with patients not allowed back until 24-hours after a deep clean to eradicate the bug had been done.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said: "To control the situation there will be no ward or hospital transfers to these areas and the patients from the affected wards have not been discharged to nursing or residential homes.

"No new patients are allowed onto these cubicles until a deep clean has been completed and only then if there are no others in the hospital."

Meanwhile Sue Dailly, Infection Control Nurse, said: "This is not just a hospital problem, there has been a general problem within the community of D&V.

"This has meant that patients who have to be dehydrated or have had problems taking their medicine have been admitted to the hospital.

"All wards are been monitored closely and we are being extremely careful, using strict hygiene methods and working within tight government frameworks to ensure the problem does not spread."

It's not the first time Winchester has suffered such a viral attack.

In February 2003, 20 people came down with a similar bug at the RHCH, while in March this year prestigious Winchester College public school saw dozens of its pupils laid low by the virus.

MEANWHILE bosses at the Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust, who run the RHCH, will be meeting later today to discuss their future.

Topics on the agenda include the proposed merger of the management teams at the both the trust and the Mid-Hampshire Primary Care Trust, who finance many of the districts GP practices and dental centres.

As previously reported in The Southern Daily Echo, the move is being considered for financial reasons and will mean the loss of a chief executive from one of the organisations.

Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust (WEHCT) chief executive Rod Hall has already stated he isn't planning on applying for the role though, and is expected to take early retirement with effect from December 31.

Also on the agenda for the meeting, which takes place today at the hospital at 2.30pm, is the state of the WEHCT's finances, an issue which union leaders had feared could cost some jobs at the trust.

The trust had been facing a huge financial deficit because it spends more than it gets in income.

Early in the year the trust had been forecasting a yearly loss of around £2m, however a last minute grant from the Government's Strategic Health Authority of £2m mean bosses at the trust now hope to break even, if current savings can be continued.