A BAY has been closed to new admissions at a Suffolk hospital after an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug.Visitors are now being asked to help staff reduce infections by staying away from Ipswich Hospital if they are feeling sick.

A BAY has been closed to new admissions at a Suffolk hospital after an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug.

Visitors are now being asked to help staff reduce infections by staying away from Ipswich Hospital if they are feeling sick.

Hospital bosses have also warned visiting times could be cut as they look to keep the spread of the norovirus bug, which affects hundreds of people in the community each year, under control.

The Heath Road site currently has one six-bedded medical bay closed to new admissions because of the six cases of the winter vomiting bug on the site.

Sufferers get bouts of diarrhoea and vomiting which last for one or two days, but may remain contagious even after they start feeling better.

Gwen Collins, director of nursing and quality at the hospital, has issued a plea to visitors to help them stop an unnecessary spread of the infection among patients.

She said: “If you are able to visit, please make sure you wash your hands with soap and water on arrival to the ward, and wash them again before you leave the ward.

“We are also asking everyone to please bear with us if we have to restrict visiting times.”

Mrs Collins added: “Thanks to the community's backing we have achieved a great deal in reducing the number of infections in hospital - but one is one too many.

“I hope everyone will help us in the run up to Christmas and in the following weeks - this is the time when we are traditionally at our most busy.”