Hospitals across the Black Country and Staffordshire are gearing up to cope with outbreaks of the winter vomiting bug norovirus.

It follows the number of NHS beds closed because of the bug doubling in a week. Plans to cope with the seasonal rise in sickness and disease are in place at each of the major hospitals.

However, the region has so far escaped any major outbreaks. Each winter outbreaks of norovirus – which causes chronic diarrhoea and vomiting – result in huge problems at hospitals with wards closed to new patients to try to prevent the spread of the disease.

So far this winter there has been only one outbreak at Walsall Manor Hospital which was forced to close ward 16 at the start of this month.

But across the country the number of NHS beds closed due to norovirus-type symptoms has more than doubled in a week, figures show.

Department of Health data for England shows the average number of beds closed per day rose from 720 to 1,545 between December 11 and 18.

Hospitals are forced to close wards and isolate pat-ients to control the virus and stop it spreading between patients.

New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton has two extra wards open during winter and many hospitals have issued advice to patient relatives and visitors not to go into hospital if they have sickness or diarrhoea.

Stafford Hospital has set up a special ward to treat patients with the winter vomiting bug after the hospital was hit with a major outbreak last year.

Amir Khan, medical director at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust said: “Asking visitors to think carefully about whether they need to come into hospital if they have experienced diarrhoea, vomiting or flu-like symptoms is just one of the ways the trust manages to keep the number of cases of norovirus down.”

By Shaun Lintern