By IW Galleries
The IW Observer has been told that a GP at an Isle of Wight surgery immediately decided to go into self-isolation after coming into close contact with the only person so far confirmed as having coronavirus on the Island.
There are also unconfirmed reports that two other staff members at the surgery also self-isolated following an incident on Friday of last week. The source said the person later confirmed as having coronavirus entered the surgery instead of calling 111, which is advised.
Once it was confirmed the person, who is thought to have visited Italy recently, was diagnosed, the staff on duty acted swiftly to try to avoid any spread of the virus, and at least one senior member of staff, a GP, remains in self-isolation. And we understand the surgery was deep cleaned over the weekend before re-opening as normal on Monday morning.
Having contacted the IW Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) who are responsible for primary care including GP services, but without any response, the IW Observer decided not to publish the location of the surgery on the Island, nor name the senior staff member in self-isolation, although both are known to us.
A spokesman for the Department of Health would only say: “As a matter of policy we do not comment on individual cases and we only provide information on geographical breakdowns as far as we feel it is appropriate.”
Press Release