A WARD has been shut after an outbreak of a hospital bug.

The Daedalus Ward at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, which cares for patients with dementia, has been closed to admissions for nearly two months after a form of MRSA was identified.

It is due to reopen on Friday.

A spokesman for Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust said that this was a colonisation of MRSA, meaning it is present on the skin and does not present immediate risk to patients.

It is treated with topical creams.

The trust said that after consulting Public Health England and a senior microbiologist, experts concluded that the ward environment could be a “contributing factor”.