NHS 111 call centre hit by coronavirus outbreak

West Midlands Ambulance Service call centre hit by Covid-19 outbreak

More than 40 staff at an NHS 111 call centre in the West Midlands contracted coronavirus (PA)

Dozens of NHS 111 call handlers working in a call centre run by West Midlands Ambulance Service have been infected with coronavirus.

In total 44 staff at the Brierley Hill centre, in Dudley, were infected after an outbreak in the 24-hour centre which employs over 1,000 staff answering vital NHS patient calls.

One member of staff told The Independent they had struggled to get information from managers and news of the outbreak had left staff feeling worried and anxious.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said it had followed extensive contract tracing measures to understand how the virus had been able to spread between staff and instigated new deep cleaning techniques.

The outbreak is believed to have started at the end of August and continued into last month.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said on Friday the outbreak had been brought under control and there had not been a confirmed infection for 19 days.

Public Health England defines an outbreaks as two or more linked cases in a setting.

A spokesman said: “A small number of staff working in our 111 call centre in Brierley Hill have tested positive for Covid-19, but this has not impacted our service and the centre has continued to operate as normal.

“The trust has worked closely with Public Health England and local authority public health officials and communicated extensively with staff to ensure they understand and follow government guidelines on social distancing and hand hygiene.”