Chicken mayonnaise sandwiches infected with listeria killed two hospital patients
TWO hospital patients died after being served chicken mayonnaise sandwiches infected with listeria, an inquest heard yesterday.
Former nurse Beverley Sowah, 57, and retired pharmacy assistant, Enid Heap, 84, both died in 2019 at Manchester Royal Infirmary.
The listeria was traced back to a meat supplier and tests revealed both women had been infected by the same source.
Public Health England was brought in to manage the outbreak after other hospitals around the country reported cases. Yesterday an inquest heard that the chicken had become contaminated with the potentially fatal infection at North Country Quality Foods (NCQF).
It was then transported to another firm, Good Food Chain (GFC), where it was used to make sandwiches distributed to around 70 NHS trusts.
While NCQF labelled the cooked chicken with a ‘use-by’ date of two days after opening, GFC extended this to three to give hospitals time to serve the finished sandwiches, the joint inquest was told.
Mrs Sowah – who was receiving palliative care for terminal cancer – was given a sandwich on April 17 but later developed sepsis. On April 26, tests revealed she was suffering from a listeria
infection, and she died later that day. Mother- of-five Mrs Heap, who had been suffering from lung disease, was served a sandwich on April 18. But listeria was not detected until May 3 and she died three days later.
An ‘outbreak meeting’ was held the following day. However, it was not until May 16 that lab results established that both Mrs Sowah
and Mrs Heap had been infected by identical strains of listeria, showing they had caught it from eating the same batch of food.
By now, cases of listeria had been identified at other hospitals, and a national investigation was launched, the inquest jury heard.
Giving evidence, NCQF managing director Jeffrey Thomas said cooked meat was kept below 5C throughout the process of storing, dicing, packaging and delivery. He said environmental health officials found ‘no evidence’ of wrongdoing at the plant in Salford.
But he accepted that a pack of bacon the firm had supplied to a different customer was later found to contain the strain of listeria which infected Mrs Sowah and Mrs Heap. NCQF has since closed down. He agreed there must have been ‘cross-contamination at the dicing stage’, but insisted the bacteria would not have reached harmful levels as long as refrigeration and use-by rules were followed.
David Bell of Staffordshirebased Good Food Chain, said the firm – also no longer trading – insisted the sandwiches were safe to eat. The inquest also heard that the batches of sandwiches eaten by Mrs Heap and Mrs Sowah were checked on arrival by hospital caterers Sodexo and found to be under 5C.
The hearing continues.
‘The same batch of food’