FIVE patients have died and 115 others are affected as a result of an outbreak of diarrhoea at a hospital, bosses have confirmed.

Extra measures have been brought in by managers at Maidstone Hospital following the outbreak of diarrhoea caused by the bacterium Clostridium Difficile (C diff).

There have been 115 confirmed cases at the hospital since April.

A review for the trust’s clinical governance process found that five patients have died as a result of being infected, while 14 affected died from a range of contributory factors, including C diff.

Four patients who died had C diff but the review found it was unlikely to have led to their deaths.

Patients affected have either been brought in with the symptoms or developed them while being treated for infections in hospital with antibiotics.

The Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has brought in a series of extra measures designed to curb the spread, with the help of the Kent Health Protection Agency. They include asking GPs not to send patients with diarrhoea alone to hospital; changing their antibiotics policy; increased infection control, including staff wearing gloves where appropriate; and the infection control team making daily rounds and moving extra staff to wards affected.

The trust is also placing patients with diarrhoea symptoms into side rooms or dedicated wards and having nursing staff dedicated to those cases.

The measures, which have, the trust say, helped reduce the numbers of cases, will be kept in place under the outbreak has stopped.

Bernard Place, director of infection, prevention and control at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, said: “The hospital has taken every precaution and action necessary to ensure that this infection is contained. This is part of a national picture of a rise in C diff infections.

“We have been working closely with the Health Protection Agency throughout and have stringent monitoring procedures in place.”

Dr Mathi Chandrakumar, director of the Kent Health Protection Unit, based at Preston Hall, Aylesford, said: “The unit has been working closely with the trust which is taking all the appropriate infection control measures.”