Ward to defend against diseases like Ebola and deadly superbugs
PEOPLE WITH highly-infectious and drug-resistant diseases will be treated at a £1.63m hospital ward which will be opened today.
The new unit at Hull’s Castle Hill Hospital will be used to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis and assess people with suspected cases of the Ebola virus, dengue fever and yellow fever.
Ward Seven has specialist treatment rooms, isolation facilities and a ventilation system to prevent contaminated air escaping.
A dedicated room for people with Ebola or similar conditions will be used to contain patients before they are transferred to specialist treatment centres in London or Newcastle.
Dr Hiten Thaker, Infectious Disease Consultant at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We have already become a regional hub for the treatment of HIV and hepatitis and have the authority to prescribe specialist antibiotics for drug-resistant TB. “We already had the status because of the expertise of our personnel. Now we have the facilities to match. “This is an inspiring environment for our staff and it is really exciting for all of us, from the housekeepers to the auxiliary nurses, the staff nurses and the consultants. “People now feel there is recognition for the work they have been doing and all we have achieved in the last 25 years or more.” The new ward has been built with a family room so that rela- tives can stay close to seriously-ill loved ones.
Dr Thaker said the unit would help the trust to attract the best staff working in infectious diseases. He said: “It provides us with the opportunity to highlight ourselves as a training centre which has all those facilities to train junior doctors to a very high level of specialist training in this area.
“It will encourage junior doctors to come and work with us and this will be very good for recruitment.”
Hull has been treating patients with infectious diseases since the 14th century, when sailors with the first known cases of syphilis were nursed at an Augustinian friary in the city. In the 1800s a bell would be sounded in the city’s docks as sailors with fever arrived to be taken to Garrison Hospital. The bell now hangs outside Nightingales Restaurant at Castle Hill Hospital.