Salmonella Probe At Dunfermline Nursing Home

AN OUTBREAK of salmonella at Leys Park Care Home for the elderly, Dunfermline, which affected two residents and a member of staff, is being investigated.

NHS Fife’s infection control team is working with Fife Council environmental services, Health Protection Scotland and the Care Commission to find out the cause.

A NHS Fife spokesperson said, “The two patients and one member of staff were in the same ward and no obvious source of infection has yet been identified. However, investigations are still on-going.

“The initial laboratory results suggest that all three are likely to have had the same type of salmonella bug but it will take a few more days before we get a definite result from the specialist laboratory.

“Local GPs have been alerted. Family and friends can help by not visiting at this time if they fell unwell.”

Gary Hartland, chief executive of Guardian Care Homes UK which owns Leys Park, said, “We are working closely with staff at NHS Fife’s public health department and are as concerned as they are to find out how these two residents and one member of staff at Leys Park Care Home became infected with salmomella.

“Our homes, which include Leys Park, have robust procedures for hygiene and cleanliness and for alerting the right authorities if something goes wrong.

“When two residents fell ill with diarrhoea on February 23rd, staff followed our procedure for taking samples and sending them for analysis by public health.

“A member of staff went sick on February 24th and later informed us that they also had diarrhoea, leading to their GP sending a sample for analysis.

“All three samples have been confirmed as salmonella but there have been no further cases among the other 58 residents and more than 60 staff at the home in the nine days since.

“The three people who fell ill have made a good recovery and our staff are following, to the letter, all of the advice provided by the public health department.

“We continue to cooperate with the authorities as they try to establish the source of infection.”