No system for alert over E.coli

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Doctors in charge of trying to control the E.coli outbreak have said there was no system in place to alert hospitals about its spread, an inquiry has heard.

Dr Gwen Lowe, of the National Public Health Service, said even now, there is no way to send urgent information to health workers around the clock.

There were also problems contacting NHS managers and GPs as the bacteria spread in 2005, the public inquiry was told.

The south Wales outbreak killed Mason Jones, five, and affected 150 people.

Dr Lowe said she was concerned some GPs may have been working in the areas affected without knowing about the outbreak.

She said that because news of the E.coli bug emerged on a Friday afternoon, the National Public Health Service for Wales (NPHS) had to ring around Welsh A&E departments and GP out-of-hours services to try to spread the message.

Back to school

But she said it was unclear if all parties received the information, especially GPs going back to work on the following Monday.

She told the inquiry that, ideally, NPHS would like to have a system in place to alert all health workers at the same time about outbreaks, with feedback that they had all received it.

Mason Jones, five, died after eating contaminated cooked meat

The inquiry also heard the NPHS felt it was correct to send pupils back to school once symptoms of their E.coli bug had eased, despite criticism from some parents.

This was because it kept the outbreak within the confines of schools and not the wider community, where it would be harder to control, the inquiry was told.

Last week, Sharon Mills, the mother of Mason Jones, the five-year-old who died, told the inquiry in a statement that a helpline set up when the outbreak started in September 2005 "could not cope" with the number of inquiries.

On some occasions, the helpline was not in service or there was an engaged tone, she said.

In outbreaks like this the helpline should be operating 24 hours a day seven days a week, Ms Mills added.

The inquiry, led by microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington, has been going on in Cardiff since the second week of February.

It has already heard how butchers John Tudor and Son of Bridgend had supplied schools in the south Wales valleys for almost a decade before meat from its factory carried E.coli through the food chain.