NHS hospital waited two days before raising alarm about meningitis outbreak

The NHS waited two days before raising the alarm about the meningitis outbreak, the BBC has learnt. The UK Health Security Agency was first alerted to a case by the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital, in Margate, on the afternoon of Friday 13 March. That patient arrived in hospital two days earlier but there was a delay in reporting to health officials - despite there being a legal requirement for cases to be reported immediately. It meant there was a delay in tracing close contacts of the patient and potentially identifying that there was a wider outbreak. The hospital - which is run by East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust - admitted to the BBC it had missed an opportunity to alert the UKHSA sooner. It said it had waited until there was a formal diagnosis via a confirmed test. Dr Des Holden, acting chief executive of East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, said the patient first presented on Wednesday evening. "We recognise there was an opportunity prior to diagnosis to notify UKHSA. "We cannot go into the detail of individual patients' care, but the trust has been in close contact with UKHSA since Friday 13 March to discuss the management of patients presenting with suspected meningitis."