A SICKNESS bug struck patients and staff at Fylde hospitals this week, prompting a call for visitors with the same illness to stay away.

The virulent winter vomiting disease which causes sickness and diarrhoea prevented new admissions to some wards at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and Wesham Hospital was not admitting new patients. Rossall hospital also shut its doors and did not admit any new patients until Wednesday afternoon.

The illness has affected 42 patients and 43 staff.

A hospital spokesperson said the virus was extremely common at this time of the year and while it only lasted 24 to 48 hours it was highly infectious.

Wards 14 and 15 at Victoria Hospital were affected and while Ward 14 was reopened on Wednesday the infection had brought the closure of Ward 24. Ward 4 at South Shore Hospital was also off limits.

Dr Ruth Duthie, consultant microbiologist for the hospitals' NHS Trust, is asking people who have symptoms of the virus, only to visit friends and relatives who are patients in hospitals in the Fylde if it is absolutely necessary.

She said: "If visitors are ill or have family members with diarrhoea and vomiting, we would advise them not to visit unless absolutely necessary until they have been clear of the illness for 48 hours."

A spokeswoman for Victoria Hospital stressed that there was not a ban on visiting and that only people with the virus needed to stay away.

The Day Hospitals at Clifton, Rossall, South Shore and Wesham plus Ward One of the Young Disabled Unit at Clifton, have also been closed as staff in these areas help to alleviate staff shortages on the affected wards.