Covid outbreak at Ysbyty Gwynedd cancels surgery

The majority of planned operations have been cancelled at a hospital following a coronavirus outbreak.

The outbreak at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor last week hit five adult wards and at the time 49 people were being treated.

It comes as schools in Bangor have delayed their phased return by a week due to high case rates and neighbouring councils' warnings to "be careful".

The hospital said the decision was not taken lightly.

The "majority" of planned operations will be cancelled at the hospital for two weeks, with a few exceptions such as some day cases, maternity and paediatrics.

Emergency surgery, diagnostic services, oncology and outpatient appointments will continue.

Alyson Constantine, the hospital's acute care site director, said: "This decision has been made to enable us to provide extra capacity on site due to the number of people being treated for Covid-19 infection at the hospital.

"Cancelling elective operations is not a decision that we have taken lightly and we would like to apologise for any distress and disappointment this has inevitably caused. The safety of our patients and staff is incredibly important and it was necessary to make these difficult decisions to ensure this."

This week, Gwynedd Council said three schools in Bangor would be delaying their foundation age school return, which began from Monday, "due to the increase in Covid-19 cases at Ysbyty Gwynedd".

The schools are now expected to return on Monday 1 March.

Gwynedd currently has a case rate of 80.3 cases per 100,000. Some of its neighbouring local authorities have the highest case rates in Wales, such as Flintshire (97.4) and Anglesey (101.4).

Anglesey council released a warning earlier in the week about the high case rates, urging people to follow the rules.

It said the "stark figures, combined with the outbreak now declared at Ysbyty Gwynedd, has led Anglesey's Covid-19 Prevention and Surveillance Group to urge communities to remain very cautious and follow the basic rules to keep each other safe".

The group comprises of representatives from Anglesey County Council, Public Health Wales, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, North Wales Police, Wales Ambulance Service Trust, Bangor University, Grŵp Llandrillo-Menai and Anglesey GP Surgeries.

Betsi Cadwaladr and Cardiff and Vale health boards both had the most "probable" and "definite" new cases in the week to 21 February - each with 42 - according to official PHW figures.

The north Wales health board has had 474 cases since the start of November.