Brighton medical centre closed after staff member ‘diagnosed with coronavirus’

A Brighton medical centre has closed this morning after a staff member was reportedly diagnosed with coronavirus.

The BBC is reporting the County Oak Medical Centre – home to Warmdene Surgery – is closed following a staff member being confirmed to have the virus.

Until last summer, one of the members of a skiing party at the centre of most of the UK’s confirmed cases was a partner there and was intending to carry on working there as a locum.

The Hove father who picked up the bug in Singapore stayed with Dr Catriona Greenwood and her husband, environmental consultant Bob Saynor.

Mr Saynor and their nine-year-old son have been confirmed as having the virus and today, it was announced that another four people from Brighton who were at the resort have also been diagnosed.

These are one woman and three men. It’s reported that one of the men is a local doctor. All of them are in isolation.

The County Oak Medical Centre in Carden Hill’s voicemail currently says: “Unfortunately the building has had to close because of an urgent operational health and safety reason.

“For non urgent medical advice, please call 111 or if you feel in need of urgent medical assistance, please call 999.”

A staff update on the practice’s website said: “After 20 happy years here at Warmdene Surgery, Dr Greenwood will sadly be leaving as a Partner on “30 June 2019. This is to enable her to spend more time with her young family.

“She will continue to work here until the end of July and will be returning from time to time to help out as a locum.

“We wish her all the best for the future.”

Dr Greenwood is also listed as a current staff member at Practice Plus, the walk-in medical centre in Queen’s Road

The Sussex Community NHS Trust, which runs the centre, has been repeatedly approached for comment. At 2.45pm, we were told to contact the Department for Health, which said it was not commenting.