Mystery food poisoning that killed 22 people – leaving doctors puzzled

It has been 40 years since a deadly food poisoning case spread across UK hospitals, leaving doctors puzzled as to what it’s cause is.

In 1984, 22 people were killed in a food poisoning epidemic which spread across health centres in Yorkshire.

The outbreak began at Stanley Royd Psychiatric hospital in Wakefield, but cases soon began to appear at other nearby hospitals.

A few elderly patients woke up suffering with sickness and diarrhoea, but in a matter of hours 36 patients across eight wards were affected.

By the end of the day, one person had died and the next day a staggering 240 patients were reporting symptoms the next morning.

More than 100 s taff members were also taken ill with the infection meaning only a few were left able to care for the elderly patients.

The bacteria responsible was promptly identified as salmonella, but it continued to spread across the next few days with 788 patients affected.

Of these, 19 were unable to withstand the fluid loss of severe diarrhoea and died.

Despite the sheer amount of cases health officials struggled to trace what is causing the deadly infection.

Dr Geoffrey Ireland, who was heading the investigation at the time, said: ‘We were dealing with sick, elderly people – and trying to find out exactly what they eat proved to be a very difficult situation.’

Doctors admitted there was only a 50% chance the source of the outbreak would ever be traced.

It was eventually found to have come from roast beef that had been cooked, cololed and left in the open for 10 hours before being served to patients in salads.

Unhappy with the way doctors and managers handled the crisis, then-social services secretary opened the first ever public inquiry into a hospital.

It brought the conditions of the 900-bed building, which mainly house elderly people with mental health conditions, under independent scrutiny for the first time.

An investigation by The Sunday Times found the hospital’s kitchen to be in such a poor state of repair cockroach poison was still found on the floor.

Dirty kitchenware was also found scattered across the room, and salmonella bacteria was found in the drains.

Cleaning schedules were also found to have not been kept, dirty cloths were soaked and reused and there was a lack of cold storage facilities.

The newspaper told inquiry officers: ‘The general impression was of facilities that were being given a thorough clean, but were taking a long time to reach the required standards.’

Hospital administrators were accused of cover ups, which they strongly denied saying they were happy to hand over all information available.

Several weeks worth of evidence hearing heard patients were left at night with no nurse provision.

The hospital’s record-keeping was also sub-par, with no one fully sure how many patients there were.

Health officers had previously warned the hospital the kitchen posed a threat to patients, but little action – if any – was slow to materialise.

Timothy Hartlet, a counsel for the inquiry, said: ‘Those who have come to administer should learn to manage.

‘Who was managing this hospital is a question which remains unanswered.’

Hospital bosses shunned any help from Public Health and when experts gained admittance, valuable clues had been cleared away.

The hospital closed 10 years later in 1995 but the salmonella case impacted psychiatric care, food-handling and inspections of hospitals across the UK.

It also highlighted that Victoria hospital buildings are not equipped for modern healthcare, especially due to the high ceiling which made thorough cleaning an impossible task.

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